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Psychic Research and Gospel Mir- 
acles 



Psychic Research and 
Gospel Miracles 



A Study of the Evidences of the Gospel's 
Superphysical Features in the Light of the 
Established Results of Modern Psychical 
Research. 



REV. EDWARD MACOMB DUFF, M. A. 

AND '' 

THOMAS GILCHRIST ALLEN, M. D, 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS WHITTAKER 

2 AND 3 Bible House 

1902 






THE UIBRARY OF 

OCNCS£SS, 
Two 00H8« Wecbve* 

n 1902 

'RWHT ENTRY 

COPY a 



Copyright, 1902 
By Edward Macomb Duff 

AND 

Thomas Gilcheist Allen 



THE CAXTON PRESS 
NEW YORK. 



To 

The Apostle St. Thomas 

AND TO 

All Honest Doubters 

This Work is 

Tenderly and Reverentially 

Dedicated. 



Preface. 



The following pages have been written and 
arranged to draw attention to what we believe 
to be new light upon the Gospel of Christ ; viz., 
the light thrown upon it by the superphysical 
phenomena brought out by modern psychical f 

research. In this new light, as is our purpose 
to make plain, the Gospel's veracity is exhibited 
and the Nazarene's inerrancy as a Spiritual 
Teacher is shown. 

"Why this is not now plain to all men is due, 
we think, to the fact that modern superphysical 
phenomena have not yet been popularly assimi- 
lated. At present these phenomena are indeed 
arousing intense popular interest. The people 
seem eager to read everything that is written 
about them ; but their full evidential significance 
has not been grasped. 

Ten years hence a demonstrative work like 
ours will, we surmise, be superfluous. By that 
time religious thinkers will be looking upon 
superphysical phenomena as commonplaces in 
Christian evidence. But now it seems incum- 
bent upon some one to step forward and say : 



viii Preface. 

" Look ! " Mr. Thomson J. Hudson, LL. D., in 
the closing chapters of his able work, " The Law 
of Psychic Phenomena," has already pointed to 
the way of entrance into this Promised Land of 
New Evidence. With gratitude to this author, 
we purpose entering and exploring. To Christian 
believers, be it said, we undertake this work in a 
spirit of reverence. To honest doubters, espe- 
cially those who are disturbed by materialism, we 
announce our intention of assuming nothing as 
proved in advance. We are as anxious for 
legitimate proof as they are. We desire, as 
Christian believers, to give to those who ask us a 
reason for the hope that is in us : — to give to 
them an answer which is an answer and not a 
series of dogmatic assertions. 

There is one necessary evil connected with this 
work, and this is the polysyllabic terminology 
thrust upon those who deal with the subject of 
psychic phenomena. The new psychology, we 
regret, has its full share of technical terms of 
Greek derivation. Many of these we have been 
compelled to use ; but we have endeavored to 
define or paraphrase them when we use them for 
the first time. 

We acknowledge our indebtedness to Dr. 
Thomson J. Hudson for the helps which he has 
given us in his three works, " The Law of 
Psychic Phenomena," "A Scientific Demon- 
stration of the Future Life," and " The Divine 
Pedigree of Man," as well as for his kindness in 



Preface. ix 

reading and criticizing certain sections of this 
work ; a kindness the more conspicuous in that in 
many particulars we differ so essentially from his 
conclusions. We are also greatly indebted to the 
late Paul Gibier, M. D., for the thoughts which 
we have assimilated from his book, " Psychism " ; 
and to C. G. Raue, M. D., for the aids contained 
in his " Psychology," etc. 

Edwaed Macomb Duff, 
Thomas Gilchrist Allen. 

Buffalo, N. Y. 
January, igo2. 



Contents. 



PAGE 

Introduction 1 



PAET I. 

A. BiBLIOGEAPHY 4 

B. The Old Veeification of Histoey 5 

PAET II. 
The Data foe a New Veeification. 

A. BiBLIOGEAPHY 32 

Chap. I. Question-Begging Mateeialism .... 37 

Chap. II. The Mieacles of Modeen Times ... 50 

Chap. III. We Speak That We Do Know .... 82 

Chap. IV. Spieit in the Eealm of Life 133 

Chap. V. Spieit in the Eealm of Mattee . . . 171 

Geneeal Notes to Chapters IV., V. . . 200 

Chap. VI. The New Data Summarized ..... 203 



PAET III. 

The New Veeification Applied, 

Chap. I. Cheist's Woeks of Healing in the 

Light of Psychic Law 211 

xi 



xii Contents. 

Chap. II. Christ's "Mighty Works" in the 
Light of Psychic Law ; Including 
His Birth and Resurrection .... 264 

Chap. III. The Superphysical Works of Jesus' 

First Disciples 291 

Chap. IV. Christ's Psychic Agency Compared 

WITH That of Others 309 

Chap. V. "That Jesus is the Christ, the Son 

of God" 329 

Chap. VI. That Jesus is the Messiah of Hebrew 

Prophecy 338 

Chap. VII. A Few Words to the Orthodox Con- 
cerning the Foregoing 347 

Chap. VIII. Recapitulation 357 

PART IV. 
Appendix A. Classified Table of Supernormal 

Phenomena 360 

Appendix B. Concerning Spirit - Communication 

AND Demonic Possession 366 



Introduction. 



If, after what we have said in the preface, 
anything further in the way of introduction is 
necessary, it is this : that there are many honest 
doubters in whose estimation the so-called mirac- 
ulous element in the Gospel is an obstacle which 
no amount of historical attestation can overcome. 
To them faith is not " the substance of things 
hoped for " ; nor yet " the evidence of things not 
seen," They must see in order to believe. To 
them in the person of the Apostle Thomas the 
Master cheerfully and willingly offered the evi- 
dence of sight and touch. St. Thomas had lost 
his faith on Good Friday. Historical attestation, 
though only a few days old, affected him not. 

Shall those who deal with Christian evidence 
to-day do less than the Master was willing to do ? 
If there is the evidence of sight at hand, shall 
we pass by on the other side scorning to make 
the most of it for those who demand it ? 

That there is such evidence at hand it is our 
purpose to show in this book ; and we shall try to 
make the most of it without in the least degree 
disregarding the " Old Yerification of History," 



2 Introduction. 

upon which our contemporaries seem to place 
their sole reliance. 

In order to appreciate the value as well as the 
limitations of the historical argument we have 
devoted Part I of this work to its review. 

In Part II we gather together the data at 
hand for the Gospel's new verification which 
the superphysical phenomena of modern times 
make possible. 

In Part III we apply these new data to the 
statements in the IS'ew Testament which involve 
that which is popularly called " miraculous " ; 
and we find therein a new and impregnable 
verification. (Let us observe parenthetically 
that by "The Gospel" we mean the entire 
written message pertaining to Jesus Christ, i. e., 
the ]!iew Testament.) 

In the appendices of Part lY we gather up 
fragments whose presence in the body of the 
book might serve to divert the reader's attention 
from its central purpose. 

To those of our readers to whom the data of 
history and of modern psychic phenomena are 
matters of familiarity we would say that the 
threads of our argument might be taken up by 
them at the beginning of Chapter vi of Part II. 



Part I. 
The Old Verification of History. 



" For we have not followed cunningly devised fables^ 
when we made known unto you the power and coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christy but were eye-witnesses of 
his majesty.''^ — 2 Peter 1 : 16. 



Bibliography of Part I. 



Annals, Tacitus, The Bohn Library 

Antiquities, Josephus, Various Editions 

ApostoKc Age of the Christian Church, The, 

Carl Von Weizacker 
James Millar's Translation . . . . G. P. Putnam's Sons, NY. 
Commentaries on Hebrew and Christian Mythology, 

Judge P. B, Ladd, Truthseeker, N.Y. 
Epistles, Pliny the Younger^ The Bohn Library 

Fathees of the Chuech. 
Clement of Rome 



The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Edinburgh 
Edition. 



Ignatius of Antioch 

Irenseus of Lyons 

Justin Martyr 

Nero, Suetonius, The Bohn Library 



Part I. 

THE OLD VEBIFIGATION OF HISTORY. 

A Brief Review of the Historical Argument for the 
Historic Existence of Jesus of Nazareth and the 
Authenticity of the New Testament. 



I. 

1e what immediately follows we shall do no 
more than review the internal and external 
evidence for the authenticity of the E'ew Testa- 
ment from the ordinary historical standpoint. 

We shall be content if our review simply 
places us in a neutral position ; although we shall 
hope that it will carry us at least a little way on 
the positive side. Still, if we feel convinced that 
historical considerations for and against the New 
Testament's authenticity are about evenly bal- 
anced, this will suffice, so far as our work in 
Part I is concerned. The way will then have 
been prepared to appreciate the psychological con- 
siderations gathered together in the other parts 
of this work as definitely dismissing any doubts 
concerning the authenticity of the written Gospel, 



6 The Old Verification of History. 

II. 

"Was Jesus of IlTazareth a mythical character ? 
Whatever may have been the views of the Ger- 
man critic, Ferdinand C. Baur, upon this subject, 
his modern successors, Weizacker of Tubingen, 
and Harnack, of Berlin, raise no question of 
Christ's historic existence. There are, however, 
in this country to-day many educated people who 
are still discussing the question of Jesus' actual 
existence. It may therefore be just as well for 
us to remind them as well as ourselves of the 
non-Christian notices bearing upon the historicity 
of the Nazarene. 

Our first witness is Josephus who wrote his 
" Antiquities " shortly after the destruction of 
Jerusalem by Titus. 

In two passages Josephus refers to Jesus 
Christ. One of these passages is conceded by all 
scholars to be interpolated ; i. e., to contain in- 
terpolated clauses. This passage by the general 
consensus of critics stands thus, the interpolated 
parts being indicated by brackets and italics: 
" At this time appeared a certain Jesus {a wise 
Tnan, if indeed He may he called a 7)ian,for He 
was a worker of miracles, a teacher of stick men 
as receive the truth with joy) and He drew to 
Himself many Jews {a7ul many also of the 
Greeks. This was the Ckrist). And when, at 
the instigation of our chief men, Pilate con- 
demned Him to the cross, those who had first 



The Old Verification of Hiatoi^y. t 

loved Him did not fall away. {For He appeared 
to them alive again on the third day^ according 
as the holy prophets had declared this and many 
other marvels of Him.) To this day the sect 
of Christians, called after Him, still exists." 
(Antiq. xviii. 3, 2.) 

Leave out the brackets and italicized sen- 
tences, and you have left statements cold and 
colorless in their tone, and as such perfectly 
consistent with the temper of a Jewish historian. 
In fact, most critics have regarded the words " a 
wise man" as genuine. We have bracketed 
them in order to extract every vestige of eulogy 
from Josephus' statement. 

The other passage of Josephus referring to 
Jesus no critic disputes, namely, that in which 
he designates James the Just (whom he eulo- 
gizes in unstinted terms) as "the brother of 
Jesus, called the Christ," (Antiq. xx. 9, 1.) 

Origen, who is regarded by the critics as 
reliable, refers to this passage in his work, 
" Against Celsus " : " This writer (Josephus) 
. . . says that these disasters (the destruction 
of Jerusalem) hap|ened to the Jews as a punish- 
ment for the death of James the Just, ' who was 
a brother of Jesus, called Christ.' " (Or. Ag. 
Celsus, Bk. 1, Chfip. xlvii.) 

Here we have a non-Christian testimony to 
the historicity of Jesus, upon which we could 
well afford to re st our entire case. Furthermore, 
the fact that Josephus could eulogize Jesus' 



8 The Old Verification of History. 

brother makes it seem highly probable that he 
could with perfect consistency have at least 
referred to Jesus Himself as " a wise man." 

We call as our next witness, the pagan 
Tacitus, whose book of " Annals " was written 
not far from the year 100 A. D. 

This is what Tacitus has to say respecting 
Christ and the Christians : " This sect (the 
Christians) had its origin from Christus, who in 
the reign of Tiberius had been executed by the 
procurator Pontius Pilate. The deadly super- 
stition, though suppressed for a time, broke out 
again and spread not only through Judea, which 
was the first to suffer from it, but through Rome 
also the resort which draws to it all that is 
hideous and shameful." 

Thus from another non-Christian source we 
have Christ fixed still more definitely upon the 
chart of history ; namel}^, in Judea and in the 
reign of Tiberius, i. e., between 14 and 3Y A. d., 
and we have the further fact established that He 
was executed under Pontius Pilate, procurator 
of Judea. 

There are certain statemenrs in this passage of 
Tacitus which open a rich v<m of historical in- 
quiry. That writer stigmatizes Christianity as 
"a deadly superstition." N"ow Tacitus was a 
very broad-minded Roman, ai,'d Rome herself 
was exceedingly tolerant of all religions within 
her domain, even those whose tt eological tenets 
might differ widely from those of the j)opular 



The Old Verification of History. 9 

Graeco-Roman mythology. Even Judaism, 
whose adherents refused to honor Cjesar as a 
god, was tolerated not only in Palestine, but 
Jewish synagogues stood unmolested throughout 
the empire. It is true that the average Roman 
looked upon Judaism as a superstition, as witness 
the poet Horace : 

" Credat Judseus Appella " — etc. 

" The Jew, Appella, may believe this ; " * 

but no one arraigned Judaism as a deadly super- 
stition. 

Why did Tacitus, then, so stigmatize Chris- 
tianity ? Evidently not because it denied the 
Grasco-Roman gods ; nor yet because of any 
wonder-working claims which it put forward, 
inasmuch as a multitude of sects and cults did 
the same thing. There is only one hypothesis 
that will adequately account for this stigmatiza- 
tion by Tacitus, and this is that there must have 
been something in the teachings of " Christus " 
that was deemed to be hostile to the constitution 
and well-being of the empire ; something that 
appealed to the Roman Imperialist as " vicious 
politics." 

Tacitus thus throws us back upon the recorded 
claim of the Christians that their leader was the 
Supreme King and Lord, whose kingdom was to 
be made by their efforts coextensive not only 
with the empire, but with the world itself. That 

* Horace : Satires, I, 5, 100. 



10 The Old Verification of History. 

the Christians looked to Jesus as " the King of 
Kings and Lord of Lords " alone explains why 
Tacitus should have stigmatized Christianity as 
a " deadly superstition." 

But Tacitus also classifies Christ's religion 
among those things which are " hideous " and 
"shameful." He thereby intimates that the sect 
was morally vicious and debasing. So likewise 
does Suetonius, a contemporary of Tacitus, who 
in his "^N'ero" praised that Emperor for the 
tortures to which he subjected the Christians 
who were " a class of men of a strange and pesti- 
lent superstition." This is a charge which was 
taken up and reiterated by the Grseco-Roman 
masses persistently for two centuries. By the 
first quarter of the second century this charge 
took definite shape. Christians were persistently 
accused of practicing cannibalism and promis- 
cuous intercourse in their religious assemblies. 

Before offering any hypothesis by which to 
account for this charge, let us enquire as to 
whether it was well-grounded. 

This inquiry is answered emphatically in the 
negative by none other than a sturdy Roman 
heathen, namely, the pro-consul Pliny in the 
reign of the Emperor Trajan, 110 a. d. At or 
near that date, Pliny wrote a letter to his Im- 
perial Master concerning the Christians under 
his jurisdiction. The substance of Pliny's letter 
is that the Christians were exceedinglv numerous 
in his province ; that many had been brought by 



The Old Verification of History. 11 

accusers before his court; that he had taken 
pains to investigate their manner of living and 
customs ; that he had found them to be people 
consecrated to uprightness and blamelessness of 
living. In view of these findings, the pro-consul 
enquired of the Emperor what his policy should 
be towards these people when accused. Trajan's 
wise and tolerant reply is well-known as a matter 
of history. 

We may confidently dismiss these charges 
against the Christians as untrue in view of such 
unprejudiced testimony ; but there is still de- 
manded of us an adequate explanation of the 
continued persistence of these accusations. Was 
there a spark from which all this smoke of ac- 
cusation proceeded ? The unbiassed testimony 
of Roman investigation answers ~^o. But Chris- 
tianity itself answers Yes. We have only to 
point to the Christian sacrament of the Eucha- 
rist, celebrated every Sunday, to make plain to 
every one whence these charges of cannibalism 
and promiscuous intercourse derived their per- 
sistency. " The cup of blessing which we bless, 
is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? 
The bread which we break, is it not the com- 
munion of the body of Christ ? For we being 
many are one bread and one body, for we are all 
partakers of that one bread." (1 Cor. 10 : 16.) 
"Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man 
and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." 
(St. John 6 : 53.) The Christians' belief that in 



12 The Old Verification of History. 

the eucharist they ate and drank Christ, and 
through this participation were brought into 
union with one another, would very easily lend 
itself to such distortion as that which appeared in 
the charges of cannibalism and promiscuous inter- 
course — those " shameful " and " hideous " things 
concerning which Tacitus seems to be hinting. 

But now that we have found the adequate 
explanation of these charges, we have found 
along with it something else of great historic im- 
portance ; namely, that " Christus " must have 
taught His followers not only that He was to be 
their supreme King and Lord, but that He was 
to be also their ever-limng, ever-present King and 
Lord, on whose life they were to be continually 
fed and nourished, and united through it into 
one communion and fellowship. Thus from out- 
side sources we are driven back to another of 
those claims of the Christ recorded in the 
Gospels. 

One more enquiry now remains : Is there any- 
thing to be gleaned from outside sources con- 
cerning that moral character which is claimed 
for the Nazarene in the ]S"ew Testament ? The 
answer is apparent from the investigation carried 
out by Pliny and reported in his letter to Trajan, 
namely, the blamelessness and uprightness of the 
Christians in their daily lives ; — a phenomenon 
utterly inexplicable if the Founder of Christianity 
had been aught else but a man of exalted char- 
acter. The spread of Christianitj^, which seems 



Th^ Old Verification of History. 13 

to have impressed. Tacitus so deeply, would have 
been perfectly consistent with moral viciousness 
on the part of its Founder. Religions which 
sanctify sensuality are always popular, as witness 
Mormonism while polygamy formed one of its 
tenets. But Pliny's report shows the aim of the 
Christians to have been a life of exalted right- 
eousness. He states that at their religious as- 
semblies they bound themselves with an oath 
{saoramento) to abstain from evil and to do good. 
This points unequivocally to the conclusion that 
Christianity's Founder must have been a teacher 
of righteousness ; and if a teacher of righteous- 
ness, presumably a righteous man. Hence, from 
outside sources, we find ourselves prepared to 
behold in the Christian Scriptures the picture of 
a righteous character. 

We may now sum up what we have gleaned 
from sources outside of the ]^ew Testament con- 
cerning the central figure of the Christian Scrip- 
tures; (1) He was called Jesus, the Christ; (2) 
He lived in Judea during the reign of Tiberius, ^- 
(14-37 A. D.); (3) He was executed under the ' \ 
procurator Pontius Pilate ; (4) His followers 
revered Him because He had satisfactorily con- 
vinced them that He was their Supreme King 
and Lord, ever-present and living, from whose 
life they were fed and nourished, to the end that 
they might lead righteous lives like His own ; 
and, agreeably with His commands, establish 
His kingdom throughout the earth. 



14 The Old Verification of History. 

But if these things concerning Jesus have been 
fairly gleaned from sources outside of the New 
Testament and other Christian writings, then the 
myth-hypothesis must be relegated to the list of 
things exploded, 

III. 

"With the myth-hypothesis disposed of, let us 
now turn to the main considerations bearing 
upon the New Testament writings themselves as 
historical documents ; and first of all to the in- 
ternal evidences. 

There are certain generalizations that seem 
self -evidently deducible from a mere cursory 
reading of the four Gospels ; and these generali- 
zations ought to be entitled to some weight in 
establishing a presumption of authenticity. We 
offer them not as new matter, but by way of 
summary. 

(1) The Gospel-narratives rank as peerless 
masterpieces of literary art, inasmuch as they por- 
tray a character who stands absolutely unequaled 
among all other characters whether of history or 
of fiction. 

(2) Whoever the authors of the Gospels may 
have been, it is evident that they were men of 
limited education, 

(3) They tell their story with simplicity and 
directness. 

(4) They tell it not vaguely, albeit briefly and 
succinctly, but circumstantially ; i. 6,, they are 



The Old Verification of History. 15 

not content to record, "Jesus said this," or 
" Jesus did that " ; but they minutely describe 
when, where and how He said it or did it, and in 
such a manner that the surroundings and circum- 
stances, even in their smaller details, stand out 
with startling vividness. 

The obvious conclusion seems to be this : If 
men of limited education can tell such a story so 
simply and directly and briefly, and yet with 
such minute regard for circumstantiality, and in 
the story itivent a character towering in its 
beauty and majesty above all other characters 
which experts in the art of literary fiction have 
dreamed of creating, they have worked the stand- 
ing miracle of the ages. In other words, those 
who ask us to believe that the evangelists were 
fiction- writers, calmly invite us to accept a mira- 
cle as great as any of those other miracles whose 
possibility they so stoutly deny. We of course 
refuse to accept any such invitation ; we reject 
the imposition of any such tax upon our credu- 
lity ; but in so doing we accept the only other 
possible alternative which is the admission that 
the pages of the Gospel-narratives are stamped 
with truth. 

lY. 

But may not the Gospel-story after all be a 
compendium of legends? We may grant that 
Jesus of Nazareth v^^as a real character of history 
and as a character He may have been all that 



16 The Old Verification of History. 

the Gospels represent Him to be. We maj^ grant 
the narrators or editors to have been sincerely- 
honest men ; but they have obviously incorpo- 
rated into their narratives a vast amount of legend- 
ary material which in a credulous age would 
inevitably grow up around such a superior 
teacher as Jesus. 

The foregoing statements represent the at- 
titude in which a large number of present-day 
skeptics stand towards the Gospels. Let us there- 
fore look into this "Legendary-Compendium" 
hypothesis. 

If the dates and authorship of the four Gospels 
may, for the time being, be regarded as doubtful, 
we naturally turn to those New Testament wri- 
tings, if any can be found, which are accepted as 
genuine by a consensus of the most severely 
hostile critics. As a matter of fact there are just 
four such writings which destructive criticism 
has left undisputed. These are St. Paul's Epis- 
tles to the Romans, to the Corinthians, 1 and 2, 
and to the Galatians. Their authorship has 
been conceded by the most hostile to be Pauline, 
and their dates are admitted to lie between the 
years 50 and 60 A. d. "We cannot here go into 
the processes of research by which this verdict 
has been reached. "We can only state the fact 
that it has been reached, as the reader may dis- 
cover for himself if he will take the time and 
trouble to read the history of ISTew Testament 
criticism for the past fifty years ; and we may 



The Old Verification of History. 17 

add that if the reader will undertake this task, 
he will feel fully satisfied as to the historical 
soundness of the verdict. 

The first step, then, in the disproof of the 
legendary theory, is this fact, conceded by the 
most hostile scholars, that Romans^ 1 and 2 
Corinthians and Galatians were written by St. 
Paul in the decade between 50 and 60 A. d. 

This carries us back to within a quarter of a 
century of Jesus' departure. Still, we may con- 
cede that much legendary matter may have 
accumulated in that age and among Christ's 
followers in the space of a quarter of a century. 

But we have St. Paul's writings — at least these 
four epistles of his — before us. Does this man 
tell us anything in these documents to lead us 
back towards the beginning of this critical 
twenty-five years' period ? Is there anything in 
these writings of an autobiographical or reminis- 
cent nature ? Fortunately there is ; for instance, 
in the first part of the Galatian Epistle. Let us 
see where this leads us. 

If we may trust the consensus of critics, this 
epistle dates from the year 58. In the first 
chapter of this letter, the apostle gives his read- 
ers a brief sketch of his first years as a Christian. 
He reviews the facts that for some time before 
his conversion he was a zealous Jew, and that as 
such he persecuted the Church and wasted it 
beyond measure (1 : 13, 14). Then he states that 
God revealed His Son in him (Paul) (1 : 15). 



18 The Old Verification of History. 

After that followed, so he tells us, a brief period 
of sojourning in Arabia whence he returned to 
Damascus (1 : lY). Three years later Paul went 
up to Jerusalem and abode with Peter for fifteen 
days ; seeing also James, but no one else. Then 
followed a period of missionary labors in Syria 
and Cilicia, probably not less than one year, 
more likely two or three years (1 : 17-21). 
Then fourteen years after that he repaired with 
Barnabas and Titus to the famous conference at 
Jerusalem (11 : 1). Some years after this he 
wrote to the Galatians and told them all these 
incidents just referred to. 

Now let ns begin with the year 58 and go 
back with St. Paul. To be extremely conserva- 
tive, let us suppose that the conference at Jeru- 
salem was held five years prior to the writing of 
Galatians. This would carry us back to 53 a. d. 
Subtract fourteen years from this, and we get 
back to 39. Subtract one from 39, — the period 
of his Syro-Cilician ministry — and we are back to 
38. Three years from this brings us to 35. If, 
by the corrected calendar, Jesus died A. d. 29, 
we are now within six years of that momentous 
event, the time (a. d. 35) when God "revealed 
his Son " in Saul the persecutor. But a matter 
of six years is a short time for the development 
of legends. Yet if St. Paul is to be believed, the 
" legends " of Jesus' resurrection and His Divine 
Sonship were fully developed at the time of the 
persecutor's conversion ; for in the Corinthian 



The Old Verification of History. 19 

letter (1:15:3 f) the Apostle states, " I delivered 
unto you first of all that which I also received^ 
how that Christ died for our sins according to 
the Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and 
that he rose again the third day according to the 
Scriptures, and that he was seen," etc. 

Now the latest theory of the Ttibingen School, 
as represented by Professor Weizacker in his 
" Apostolic Age of the Christian Church," is that 
Paul's " Fifth Gospel " (as these four undisputed 
epistles are frequently and aptly termed) is the 
very germ of primitive Christianity. Professor 
Weizacker, we repeat, regards this Pauline 
" Fifth Gospel " as the essence of historically 
primitive Christianity, — a fact which, among 
other things, shows the abandonment of the myth- 
view of Jesus' personality by the most "ad- 
vanced" critics. But Paul in this Fifth Gospel, 
as Weizacker tries to maintain, held a purely 
spiritual view of Jesus. For example, in Paul's 
view, Jesus' resurrection was in nowise cor- 
poreal ; nor does Paul, when he speaks of having 
seen the risen Lord, refer in any sense to an 
optical vision. The stories of a corporeal resur- 
rection and of optical visions of the risen Jesus, 
so Weizacker contends, are later and Post-Pauline 
importations of legendary material. The differ- 
ence between Paul and the evangelists, accord- 
ing to Weizacker, is that the former's conceptions 
of Jesus are spiritual and the latters' are 
material ; for the latter wrote after the develop- 



20 The Old Verification of History. 

ment of materialistic legends, whereas Paul 
wrote while as yet Christianity was in its alleged 
purely spiritual stage. 

^The primitive view of Jesus, as Weizacker 
puts it, was " The conviction that the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus meant His departure to Heaven 
until He should return and complete the king- 
dom." ("Apostolic Age of the Christian Church," 
James Millar's translation, Yol. 1, p. 18.) 

In plain words, this is equivalent to saying 
that Jesus' resurrection meant simply His im- 
mortality, the persistence of His soul after 
bodily dissolution. Mark well this point, for it 
involves an unequivocal position of the critic 
from which there is no retreat. 

"With this statement of the critic fresh in mind, 
let us turn to those statements of St. Paul 
which bear directly upon Jesus' death and resur- 
rection, viz., 

(a) "How that Christ died," etc. 

(b) " And that He was buried ; " 

(c) "And that He rose again the third day," etc. 

1 Cor. 15 : 3. 

Now the unanswerable question that confronts 
the critic (Weizacker) and scatters his hypothesis 
to the four winds, at this point comes to view : 
if St. Paul believed in Jesus' resurrection as 

^ The few following paragraphs commenting upon Weiziicker's 
contention are reprodiiced in part from an article of ours in the 
"Church Eclectic" (then Milwaukee, now New York), for 
October, 1895. E. M. D. 



The Old Verification of History. 21 

nothing more than the persistence of His soul 
after death, what did he mean by teaching those 
Corinthians that the resurrection was deferred 
until the third day 9 If personal immortality 
means anything, it means that the soul enters 
upon its new life immediately, at the very instant 
of bodily dissolution. The critic (Weizacker) 
insists that St. Paul identifies Jesus' resurrection 
with the entrance of His soul into new and im- 
mortal life. Yery well then, if this is so, Jesus' 
resurrection must, in this view, have taken place 
at the instant of His death. But St. Paul con- 
spicuously fails to state this as his view of the 
case ; for he says that " He rose again the third 
dayP 

ISTow to press the matter home, since it plainly 
appears that in St. Paul's belief Christ's resur- 
rection meant something more than the soul's 
entrance into immortality, let us ask what the 
apostle does appear to believe as to the manner 
of Christ's resurrection on the third day. He 
states that Christ died ; that His bodily functions 
ceased. He states that Christ was buried; mean- 
ing, of course, that His body was buried. He 
states that He rose again on the third day mean- 
ing, of course, — what ? There is but one mean- 
ing left open to consideration, and that is that 
the slain body was revived. . . . The point 
is as clear as the day that St. Paul's doctrine of 
Christ's resurrection was the revival^ of His 

' See Part III, Chapter ii, Section 3. 



22 The Old Verification of History. 

slain body on the third day. With this fact 
clearly before us, we can put but one construc- 
tion upon the manner in which the corporeally 
risen Christ was, in St. Paul's view, seen of 
Cephas, of the twelve, of the five hundred, of 
James, of all the apostles, and last of all him- 
self ; that the " seeing " was no intuitive convic- 
tion of the slain Master's immortality, but a 
series of views, face to face, eye to eye, of the 
Form which the grave could not hold. It was 
this manner of " seeing " and only this, which 
transformed Saul the Pharisee into Paul the 
Apostle of Jesus Christ. 

The position of Weizacker respecting Paul's 
" Fifth Gospel " as the historic expository of 
genuinely primitive Christianity represents, as 
we have said, the latest position of " advanced " 
critics. It stands as a confession that all previous 
positions have been found untenable. But 
Weizacker's theory of Paul's spiritual, i. e., non- 
corporeal, conception of Jesus has been shown to 
be equally untenable. This being so, the last 
ditch of the " Legendary-Compendium " theory 
must be abandoned. 

Again, in addition to the proof already pre- 
sented against the theory of legendary growth 
and wonder-stories, it is worth while noting that 
St. Paul, in the most matter-of-fact way, alludes 
to signs and powers of a superphysical nature 
manifested among the disciples as late as the 
year 58. Read the twelfth chapter of 1 Covin- 



The Old Verification of History. 23 

thians and you will find Paul giving directions 
pertaining to such phenomena as " gifts of heal- 
ing," " working of miracles," " discerning of 
spirits," " prophecy," and " tongues " ; phenomena 
which in Paul's certain knowledge, as well as in 
that of the Corinthians, were so common as to 
require no proof. Observe that St. Paul does 
not say " these phenomena are possible " ; he 
takes that for granted, and says in effect, " Let 
there be no jealousy among those who are accus- 
tomed to manifest these phenomena. They are 
all operations of one and the selfsame Spirit who 
divides to each man severally as He will." 

But if superphysical phenomena were of com- 
mon occurrence — or at least helieved so to be — 
in the Church as late as the year 58 a, d., where 
was the necessity of developing and eagerly seiz- 
ing upon legends to carry back phenomena of a 
similar nature to the years 26-29, the period of 
Jesus' ministry ? If, in the belief of Paul and 
others in the year 58, the age of 'miracles had 
passed, we might then have grounds for suspect- 
ing that the so-called " stories " then prevalent of 
such things happening a generation previous 
were simply " wonder-stories " developed under 
the fervor of devotion. But St. Paul's frequent 
references to " signs " and " powers " performed 
by himself among those whom he is addressing, 
as well as by the disciples addressed, his refer- 
ences to these things as matters of every-day oc- 
currences are facts which knock down the last 



24 The Old Verification of History. 

prop upon which the legendary hypothesis 
rests. 

V. 

Turning now to external evidence, we shall 
find, when we have reviewed the second century 
attestations to the ISTew Testament writings, that 
the case for the latter's authenticity is a strong one. 

In fact, hostile critics stake their case on what 
seems to us to be a very flimsy point ; viz., that 
the seeming quotations of the second century 
fathers from the ]^ew Testament writings can- 
not with certainty be regarded as quotations at 
all because of their deviations in language from 
the received text, and because of the writers' 
failure to mention the source. 

This point appeals to us as flimsy, first, from 
the fact that the fathers in question had no con- 
veniently bound, printed and chaptered copy of 
the New Testament to which quick and easy ref- 
erence could be made ; but at the very most they 
possessed only separate uncial manuscripts of the 
various books lying around piecemeal ; therefore, 
their temptation to quote from memory would be 
great on account of the irksomeness involved in 
rummaging through uncial manuscripts. 

Secondly, their failure in most cases (but not 
in all) to mention their source specifically is 
j>ri7)%a facie evidence that they took for granted 
their readers' knowledge of the source. This 
prima facie evidence is immensely strengthened 



The Old Verification of History. 25 

when we find, as we not infrequently do, an ap- 
parent quotation from the ISTew Testament re- 
peated a few sentences further on in phraseology 
slightly different from the first apparent quota- 
tion, hoth of these slightly varying from the re- 
ceived text. We can well conceive no clearer 
proof that the father here is quoting from mem- 
ory and taking for granted his readers' familiar- 
ity with the source. Criticism based on points 
like these bears a striking resemblance to quib- 
bling; at least so, we are persuaded, it would 
appear to a plain practical man. 

It is, we think, not surprising that such an 
eminent critic as Professor Harnack should have 
frankly confessed, as he did not very long ago, 
that after years of mature reflection and investi- 
gation, so far as he could see, most of the New 
Testament documents were written at the dates 
and by the authors assigned to them by Chris- 
tian tradition. 

Lastly, as to the early fathers prior to the 
third quarter of the second century who quote 
passages from the New Testament : What pa- 
tristic writings do the "advanced" critics con- 
cede to have been issued prior to this period? 
Justin Martyr who wrote two apologies to the 
Emperor Antoninus Pius, is one. This emperor 
reigned from 138 to 161 A. D. Justin's Apolo- 
gies are assigned to about the year 150. He 
(Justin) quotes from the following New Testa- 
ment books : 



26 The Old Verification of History. 

From St. Matthew's Gospel 40 passages 

•' " Mark's " 3 

" " Luke's " 19 " 

" " John's " 5 " 

" Acts 2 " 

" Eomans 4 " 

" 1 Corinthians 3 " 

" Galatians 2 " 

" 2 Thessalonians 2 " 

" Hebrews 1 passage 

" 1 Peter 1 " 

" 2 " 1 

" Revelation 1 " 

Thus in the middle of the second century the 
showing of external evidence for the gospels, St. 
John's included, is even better than it is for the 
undisputed epistles of St. Paul. 

The fathers preceding Justin are Polycarp of 
Smyrna (120), Ignatius of Antioch (lOT), and 
Clement of Kome (95). All of these are disputed 
by the " advanced " critics. 

Of Polycarp, Ireneeus (180) makes mention 
thus : " There is also a very powerful epistle of 
Polycarp written to the Philippians, and from 
which those who choose to do so, can learn the 
character of his faith and the preaching of his 
truth." (" Against Heresies," Bk. Ill, Chap, iii.) 

Again : " But Polycarp also was not only in- 
structed by apostles, and conversed with many 
who had seen Christ, but was also by apostles in 
Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, 
wlioin I also saw in my early youth, for he tar- 
ried on earth a very long time, and when a very 



The Old Verification of History. 27 

old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering 
martyrdom, departed this life." {Ihid.) 

This is first-hand testimony. If Polycarp's 
epistle was, in spite of this testimony, a forgery, 
it could not have been forged much later than 
150 A. D. There is in this epistle itself internal 
evidence of its early date which confirms the tes- 
timony of Irenseus. 

The evidence to which we refer is the fact be- 
trayed in the epistle that the Philippians had not 
then applied the name hishop to their chief pastor. 

We may, now that we have found out some- 
thing for ourselves, not relying upon the ij)se 
dixits of " rigorous and vigorous " German critics 
as infallible, call upon the alleged epistle of 
Polycarp to the Philippians, as at least a first- 
quarter second century witness. The epistle is 
brief and we must not expect to find a long list 
of quotations. This however is what we do find : 



From St. Matthew's 


Gospel 


5 passages 


" " Luke's 




1 passage 


" Acts 




1 


" Eomans 




2 passages 


" 1 Corinthians 




2 " 


" Galatians 




2 


" Ephesians 




2 " 



Philippians (Epistle twice mentioned by name) 

1 Thessalonians 1 passage 

2 " 1 " 

1 Timothy 3 passages 

2 " 1 passage 
1 Peter 9 passages 
1 John 1 passage 



28 The Old Verification of History. 

All of these quotations occur in an epistle hardly 
longer than one of St. Paul's Thessalonian epistles. 

Ignatius, we will pass over, though Polycarp 
in the above letter refers to him as having been 
martyred quite recently, and also to the epistle 
of Ignatius to himself (Polycarp), We may say, 
however, that Lightf oot has vindicated beyond dis- 
pute the seven shorter letters of Ignatius. Still we 
shall pass him by and proceed to Clement. (95 a. d.) 

The evidence for the genuineness of this 
epistle (his First to the Corinthians) rests upon 
the same grounds as does that of Polycarp, viz., 
(1) Its mention by Iren^us (" Heresies," Bk, III, 
Chapter iii, 3) ; and (2) the fact that in the 
epistle itself is a reference to a dispute which 
had arisen " concerning the name of bishops " ; 
showing that the name " bishop " was not at 
that time settled upon the office of local chief 
pastor. Hence the epistle cannot be later than 
the first quarter of the second century, whether 
Clement is its author or not. 

The New Testament quotations in this epistle 
may be summed up as follows : 



From St. Matthew's Gospel 2 passages 

" " Mark's " 1 passage 

" " Luke's " 1 " 

cts 1 " 

;oinans 1 ' ' 

Corinthians 2 passages (this epistle is 

itus 1 passage also named) 



" Luke's 
Acts 1 

Romans 
1 

Titus 

Hebrews 2 passages 

1 Peter 1 passage 



The Old Verification of History. 29 

It may be observed tliat the great mass of Clem- 
ent's arguments in this letter are taken from 
the Old Testament ; so that the occasions for 
quoting the New Testament are few. 

External evidence from the middle of the 
second century backward shows a recognition of 
all the ISTew Testament books except Philemon, 
James, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. Justin, Polycarp 
and Clement collectively quote 127 times from 
the remaining Kew Testament books. Is it to 
be wondered at that Professor Harnack should 
have confessed what he did ? 

A final word under the head of External Evi- 
dence : Let us not confuse the question of authen- 
ticity with that of canonicity. They are dis- 
tinct and separate questions. There was no 
formally recognized " Canon of the N^ew Testa- 
ment " in the second century. The fixing of the 
canon was of a much later date. But there 
were from the first half of the second century 
backward all the hooks in recognized existence 
(save the five above-mentioned) which were 
afterwards adjudged as " canonical " / and they 
were quoted as carrying with them the same 
weight of authority as Christians assign to them 
to-day. As for the five books from which no 
quotations were made prior to Irenaeus, we can 
afford to leave them out of the present discussion, 
for more than sufficient has been proved al- 
ready. 



30 The Old Verification of History. 

YI. 

To sum up our review of the historical evi- 
dence : 

(1) The myth theory as to Jesus' real exist- 
ence is untenable if the testimony of Pagan 
notices is reliable. 

(2) The Gospel-narrative on its face shows 
that if its authors were fiction writers, they suc- 
ceeded in working the literary miracle of the 
ages. 

(3) The four undisputed Epistles of St. Paul 
as historical documents show that the " super- 
natural" elements ascribed by certain modern 
critics to legendary growth formed an integral 
part of Christian belief from the very beginning ; 
that they were either true beliefs from the be- 
ginning, or false beliefs from the beginning ; that 
the presence of such elements in the evangelical 
narratives constitutes no proof, nor yet even the 
shadow of a presumption that the latter were 
not of first century authorship. 

(4) A review of external evidences — the quo- 
tations from the New Testament by Church 
fathers writing in the first half of the second 
century — shows that in that period the books of 
the New Testament were familiar to Christians ; 
which fact points to the first-century origin of 
these books. 



Part II. 
The Data for the New Verification. 

" Wheyx I am told that what I describe cannot he ex- 
plained in accordance with preconceived ideas of the 
laws of nature, the objector really begs the very ques- 
tion at issue and resorts to a inode of reasoning which 
brings science to a standstill. The argument runs in 
a vicious circle ; we must not assert a fact until we 
know that it is in accordance with the laws of nature, 
while our only knowledge of the laws of nature must 
be based on an extensive observation of facts. If a 
new fact seems to oppose what is called a law of 
nature, it does not prove the asserted fact to be false, 
but only that we have not yet ascertained all the laws 
of nature, or not learned them correctly.''^ — Sir 
William Crookes, F. K.. S., in Quarterly Journal of 
Science, Oct. 1, 1871. 

" Your spirit and soul and body.^^ — 1 Thess. 5 : 23. 

" To another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit ; and 
to another ivorkings of powers; and to another 
prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits.'''' — 1 
Cor. 12:9, 10. 

" Seeing He Himself giveth to all life, and breath, 
and all things . . . for in Him we live and move 
and have our being.''^ — Acts 17 : 25 and 28. 

" For the invisible things of Him since the creation 
of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through 
the things that are made, even His everlasting power 
and divinity.'''' — Bomans 1 : 20. 

" It is the Spirit that quickeneth.''^ — St. John 6 : 63. 



Bibliography of Parts II-IV. 



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S. Gorham, New York. 

Apparitions and Thought Transference, Frank Podmore. 
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Behind the Veil. Anon. Little Brown & Co., Boston. 

Birth A New Chance. Columbus Bradford, A. M. A. C. 
McClurg & Co., Chicago. 

Cellular Cosmogony Koseshan Eeligio Science. Koresh & 
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Christian Science, an Exposition. A. B. Purrington. E. B. 

Treat & Co., N. Y. 

Christian Science & Kindred Superstitions. Chas. F. Win- 
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Commentaries on Hebrew & Christian Mythology. Judge 
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Cultivation of Personal Magnetism, The. L. Berrier. Min- 
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Chemistry. Ira Eemsen. D. C. Heath & Co., Boston, Mass, 

Chemistry. E. A. Witthans, A. M., M. D. Wm. Wood & Co., 
N. Y. 

Chemistry, Gustavus Hinrichs. Day, Egbert & Fidlar, 
Davenport, Iowa, 1870. 

Crystallography. Gustavus Hinrichs. Day, Egbert & Fidlar, 
Davenport, la. 

Debatable Land, The. E. D. Owen. W. G. Carlton & Co., 
N. Y. 

Divine Pedigree of Man, The. T. J. Hudson, LL. D. Mc- 
Clurg, Chicago. 

Esoteric Buddhism. A. P, Sinnett, Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co., Boston. 

32 



Bibliography of Parts II-IV. 33 

Evolution of Immortality, The. The Eev. S. D. McConnell, 
D. D., D. D. L. The Macmillan Co., N. Y., 1901, 

Fact and Fable in Psychology. Joseph Jastrow. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., Boston. 

Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World. R. D. Owen. 
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From India to the Planet Mars. T. Flournoy. Harpers, 
N. Y. 

From Matter to Spirit. C. DeMorgan. Longmans, Green & 
Roberts, London. 

Hidden Way Across the Threshold, The. J. C. Street, A, B. 
N. Lee & Shepard, Boston, Mass. 

Harper's Monthly Magazine. April, June and August, 1900. 

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form. R. Osgood Mason, M. D. Henry Holt & Co., New 
York. 

Hypnotism. Albert Moll. Scribners, N. Y. 

Hypnotism and Hypnotic Suggestion. By Thirty Authors. 
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Hypnotism. Carl Sextus. H. M. Caldwell & Co., N. Y. and 
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Hypnotism in Mental & Moral Culture. John Duncan Quack- 
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Hypnotism and its Application to Practical Medicine. A. D. 
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Hypnotism, An Experimental Study. Dr. R. "Von Kro£ft- 
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Isis Unveiled. H. P. Blavatsky, The Path Office, 144 Madi- 
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Incidents in My Life. D. D. Home. Holt & Williams, N. Y. 

Law of Psychic Phenomena, The. T. J. Hudson, LL. D. 

McClurg, Chicago. 

Life Beyond Death. The Eev. M. J. Savage, D. D. G. P. 

Putman, N. Y. 
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Messianic Prophecy. Dr. Edward Reihm. Chas. Scribner's 

Sons, N. Y. 



34 Bibliography of Parts II-IV, 

Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. A. R. Wallace. Tmbner 
& Co., London. 

Man and the Spiritual World. Rev. Arthur Chambers. Geo. 
W. Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Modern Mystics and Modern Magic, Arthur Lillie. Chas. 
Scribner's Sons, N. Y. 

New Chemistry, The. Josiah P. Cooke. D. Apijleton & Co., 
N. Y. 

No Beginning, or The Fundamental Fallacy. Wm. H. Maple. 
Maple & Co. , Chicago. 

Occult World, T.he. A. P. Sinnett. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
Boston. 

Our Life After Death. Rev. Arthur Chambers. Geo. W. 
Jacobs & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Our Bible and Higher Criticism, Who Wrote it, When — 
Where — How? Moses Hull. Sunflower Pub. Co., Lily 
Dale, N. Y. 

People from the Other World. H. S. Olcott. American Pub. 
Co., Hartford, Conn. 

Phantasms of the Living. Messrs. Gurney, Myers & Podmore. 
2 Vols. Trubner & Co., London. 

Physico-Physiological Researches in the Dynamics of Magnet- 
ism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization and Chemism 
in their Relation to Vital Force. Baron Charles Von 
Richenbach. Patridge & Britton, N. Y. 

Psychography. F. P. Evans, edited by J. J. Owen. The 
Hicks- Judd Co., San Francisco, Cal, 

Psychology of Religion. E. D, Starbuck. Scribner, N. Y. 

Psychology as a Natiiral Science Applied to the Solution of 
Occult Psychic Phenomena. C. G. Raue, M. D. Porter & 
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Posthumous Humanity. A. D'Assier. G. Red way, London. 

Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 14 Vols. 

Trubner & Co. , London. 
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Vol. 16. Kegan Paul, French. Trubner & Co., Loudon, 

Eng., 1901. 
Psychism. Paul Gibier, M. D. Bulletin Pub. Co., N. Y. 
Psychics : Facts and Theories. Rev. Minot J. Savage, Geo. H. 

Ellis, Boston, Mass. 



Bibliography of Par-ts II-IV. 35 

Principles of Light and Color, Edwin D. Babbitt, M. D., LL. 
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Rationale of Mesmerism, The. A. P. Sinnett. Houghton, 
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Report of the London Dialectical Society. J. Burns, London. 

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Science and Health, etc. Mrs, M, B, G, Eddy. J, Armstrong, 
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Telepathy and the Subliminal Self, R. O, Mason, M, D. H. 
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36 Bibliography of Parts II- IV. 

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CHAPTER I. 

QUESTIOISr-BEGGING MATEEIALISM. 

Showing how the materialists through their dictum, "Mir- 
acles, ' ' '/. e. , superphysical phenomena, ' ' do not happen, ' ' 
beg the question at issue between Theism and Atheism by 
assuming the truth of the materialistic theory and refusing 
to investigate the evidences for modern superphysical phe- 
nomena. 

We have just been reviewing the historical 
credentials of the Gospel. The data in this field, 
we are convinced, can never become obsolete. 
They yield an argument for the IN'ew Testa- 
ment's authenticity which to our thinking can 
never be gainsaid. The historic Christ-character 
as portrayed in the evangelical pages ought to be 
in itself a testimony sufficient for all centuries to 
render credible all the works ascribed in those 
records to Him. 

But there is still present with us a leaven, 
whose workings date from the rise of evolutionary 
science, which is even yet pow^erful enough to 
discount in many minds the effects of the his- 
torical argument. We refer to the leaven of 
riiaterialism. In the name of evolution, material- 
ism, as all know, went forth conquering and to 
conquer; holding in its thrall the chief minds 

37 



38 Question-Begging llaterialism. 

whose studies were directed upon purely physical 
research. Through these minds influences were 
radiated throughout the whole world of modern 
thought, whereby things spiritual became rele- 
gated to the realm of shadows. With physicality 
in the zenith of thought, Mind itself went down 
into a dismal nadir ; an assemblage of chemical 
elements of which ideas formed mere " secre- 
tions," — somewhat as bile is a secretion of the 
liver. In the brazen glare of the physical the 
superphysical became a pale spectre ; a dream of 
the superstitious who still clave to shattered 
idols. Under this materialistic leaven Christian 
apologetics brought forth such works as Dean 
Mansel's " Limits of Eeligious Thought " and 
" Philosophy of the Conditioned " ; and A. J. 
Balfour's " Defence of Philosophic Doubt," and 
" The Foundations of Belief." It is needless to 
point out that among whomsoever this material- 
istic influence still holds sway any argument 
based upon purely historical credentials or upon 
the Christ-character would fall flat ; — the latter 
because character is only a property of matter ; 
the former, because materialistic thought has 
now become fixed in the dictum, " Miracles," i. e., 
supernormal or superphysical phenomena, " do 
not happen." 

There are many who are held in thrall under 
this influence, even though they are far from 
being avowed materialists. They may feel the 
clearness and strength of the historical argument 



Question-Begging Materialism. 39 

for the Kew Testament's authenticity. They 
may be fully convinced of the honesty and 
sincerity of its writers. But yet in the presence 
and under the influence of this confident dictum 
of materialistic rationalism, they feel a misgiving 
that perhaps, after all, inasmuch as superphysical 
phenomena do not happen now, those honest 
reporters of the first century may have been 
mistaken. They may have been victims of one 
or more of the half-dozen '*' sources of error " to 
which the untrained observer, however honest, is 
constantly exposed. 

In short, we perceive the limitations of the 
historical argument from the evidential stand- 
point in this materialistic age, just so long as this 
materialistic dictum is allowed to stand. 

It behoo^^©S_lls^ therefore, to enquire whether 
this dictum in the light of logic and of fact is 
entitled to good and regular standing. Let us 
see then upon what foundation it rests. 

We shall show that its foundation is none 
other than the deliberate begging of the main 
question at issue between Theism and Atheism, 
viz. : the arrogant assumption by the opponents of 
Theism, that the physical or material (together 
with force or energy) is the All of reality. 

Part II of this book is written with the object 
of refuting the materialistic dictum as to the im- 
possibility of " miracles " by placing in evidence 
the established results of modern psychical re- 
search. 



40 Question-Begging MateiHalisfii. 

But we find ourselves temporarily enjoined 
from appealing to facts by the illogical attitude 
just now assumed by materialistic leaders towards 
psychical research findings. They are repeating 
towards these findings the same arguments in 
principle as were offered by the papal theologians 
against the discoveries of Galileo. They would 
exclude the established results of psychical re- 
search from the field of evidence because for- 
sooth these results stultify the materialistic con- 
ception of what nature ought to be. 

We utter a truism when we say that he who 
sits in the chair of science owes it to himself and 
to his fellow-men to be as far removed as his 
human nature will permit from the " seat of the 
scornful." The true scientist has been con- 
secrated to the high calling of the pursuit of 
truth. He desecrates and belittles his office 
when he scorns the candid investigation of any 
purported fact, no matter how severely such a 
fact, if established, jars upon the hypothesis under 
which he has been working. 

Again we utter a truism when we say that as 
" the just live by faith," so must the man of 
science work under postulates and hypotheses 
which he has all along found adequate to explain 
the body of facts falling under his observation. 
But when new facts carefully observed and 
attested by his peers in the field of science are 
brought to light, he forfeits his claim to the 
priesthood of science when he refuses to consider 



Question- Begging Materialism. 41 

them and heaps abuse and ridicule upon their 
discoverers because these alleged facts, if allowed, 
would compel him to modify his hitherto justi- 
fiable conceptions as to nature's constitution. 

He who said " The Sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the Sabbath," might well say, 
were He now a man among men who are seeking 
for light, " Hypotheses are made for truth, and 
not truth for hypotheses." 

Alas, that the history of scientific achievement, 
both in the field of mechanical inventions and in 
that of the advancement of truth, should have 
been at each stage a martyrdom of pioneers who 
have afterwards been canonized ! But truth, 
scientific as well as theological, has ever been 
wounded in the house of its friends. When the 
scientist becomes dogmatic, well may we cry, 
" Et tu Brute ! " 

It is with regret that we must in the name of 
truth and candor bring an indictment of dog- 
matism, bigotry and passion against certain 
representatives of science in their attitude 
towards the facts brought to light by psychical 
research. We speak not in anger, but in sorrow, 
though we confess our temper has often been 
strained to the breaking-point. 

We are ready cheerfully to admit that fifty 
years ago the allegation of superphysical phe- 
nomena as contemporary occurrences might have 
justified a scornful reception at the hands of 
scientists. In those days, so far as scientific re- 



42 Question- Begging Materialism. 

searcli had gone, matter and material forces 
seemed to represent the only well-attested facts 
in nature. 

The attestation of facts superphysical rested 
then upon the " say-so " of emotional people un- 
trained in scientific observation. So far, so good. 
But these emotional people began to make so 
much noise, and to allege so many superphysical 
occurrences, that before long " their sound went 
forth into all lands and their word unto the ends 
of the world." 

So wide-spread did their " pestilential heresy " 
become that certain prominent scientists in the 
interest of truth took it upon themselves to look 
into these " superstitious allegations " in order to 
expose and explode them, and set at rest minds 
which were being disturbed. 

Judge Edmonds of the Supreme Court of New 
York State, Alfred Kussel Wallace, the coad- 
jutor of Charles Darwin, Professor C. De 
Morgan, England, William Crookes, F. E. S,, 
(since knighted). Professor ZoUner of Berlin, the 
members of the London Dialectical Society, and 
many others of prominence and unquestioned 
standing, joined in the cause of exposition, — one 
after another. 

The result is known. Every would-be refuter 
became a convert ; was compelled in all candor 
to acknowledge that he had witnessed occur- 
rences which material conditions were inade- 
quate to explain. 



Question- Begging Materialism. 43 

The result of these conversions and announce- 
ments is also known. They were met with 
howls of derision and cries of " Impossible." 

Professor Huxley, when invited to " come and 
see," contemptuously replied that he had no 
time to waste over " Spooks," — ^or words to that 
effect. 

Another scientist, Professor Jastrow, of the 
University of Wisconsin, in a work entitled 
" Fact and Fable in Psychology," takes up the 
cudgels for materialism ; and in the course of a 
book whose arguments are chiefly a joriori, 
naively says, " I am more than willing to con- 
tribute whatever I can to the maintenance of a 
cooperative Psychological Investigation Society 
which shall stand ready to take up the investiga- 
tion of any phenomena which promise to yield 
data of psychological interest ; which shall., how- 
ever^ heep far reTnoved from any phase of the 
transcendental or occttlt,'''' etc. (p. 65). (Italics 
ours.) In other words, he would support a 
society which would pledge itself in advance not 
to endanger the materialistic theory. This, we 
repeat, is naive. Psychology must be confined 
to the cerebro-nervous system ; — any form of 
mental communication, or acquisition of knowl- 
edge, or manifestation of power, which trans- 
cends ordinary physiological conditions and 
defies the materialistic dogma is an abomi- 
nation ! 

Prof. William James of Harvard Univer- 



44 Question-Begging Materialism. 

sity thus relates some of his own experiences 
with scientific contemporaries in his quest after 
psychic facts : " For instance, I invite eight of 
my scientific colleagues severally to come to my 
house at their own time, and sit with a medium 
for whom the evidence already published in our 
' Proceedings ' had been most noteworthy. Al- 
though it means at worst the waste of an hour 
for each, five of them decline the adventure. I 
then beg the ' Commission ' connected with the 
chair of a certain learned psychologist in a neigh- 
boring university to examine the same medium, 
whom Mr. Hodgson and I offer at our own 
expense to send and leave with them. They 
also have to be excused from any such entangle- 
ment. I advise another psychological friend to 
look into this medium's case, but he replies that 
it is useless, for if he should get such results as I 
report, he would (being suggestible) simply 
believe himself hallucinated. When I propose 
as a remedy that he remain in the background 
and take notes, whilst his wife has the sitting, 
he explains that he can never consent to his 
wife's presence at such performances. This 
friend of mine writes ex cathedra on the subject 
of psychical research, declaring (I need hardly 
add) there is nothing in it ; the chair of the 
psychologist with the commission was founded 
by a spiritist, partly with a view to investigate 
mediums ; and one of the five colleagues who de- 
clined my invitation is widely quoted as an 



Question-Begging Materialism. 45 

effective critic of our evidence. So runs the 
world away ! " ^ 

This attitude on the part of so many so-called 
scientists is anything but scientific in its temper. 
Indeed, it is all temper and no science. It makes 
obvious the fact that not truth but pet theories, 
not the quest for more data, but the bolstering 
up of cherished dogmas, form the chief concern 
of these learned gentlemen. 

" Materialism onust be true ; and all allegations 
to the contrary /<»?5e." 

This proposition fairly represents the attitude 
of so-called science towards the phenomena 
under discussion. 

It may now be apparent why we have en- 
titled this chapter "Question-Begging Mate- 
rialism." 

In the year 1882, after the great pioneers, 
whose names we have mentioned, had stated the 
results of their investigations, the well-known 
London Society for Psychical Research, (to 
which we shall hereafter refer as the " S. P. 
R.") was organized. The findings of the S. P. 
R., as well as those of the principal " pioneers " 
who preceded it, will be noticed in our next 
chapter. 

Here it will be sufficient to refer our readers 
to the published " Proceedings " of the London 
Society that they may see for themselves the 

^ Popular Science Monthly ; August, 1901 ; article, ' ' Freder- 
ick Myers' Service to Psychology," 



46 Question-Begging Materialism. 

elaborate and (to the layman) almost fussy pre- 
cautions against errors in observation taken by 
that society's investigators. 

Among the precautions best worth noting are 
these : 

(1) An elaborate mathematical calculus of 
probabilities applied to the cases of " veridical " 
telepathic communications ; i. e., communications 
through telepathy whose objective truth was 
subsequently verified. Concerning these the 
question may be asked : " Are they not all mere 
coincidences ? Did they not merely happen to 
come true ? " The application of a mathematical 
calculus by the S. P. E,. demonstrates the re- 
moval of these cases from the category of 
" Coincidental Happenings." 

(2) "Retroactive illusions of memory." — 
Might not the observers in their reports of 
phenomena unconsciously import into their ac- 
counts incidents which never took place ? The 
" Proceedings " show that the observers, when 
the cases were of an experimental nature, stood 
by with note-hooks and jpencils^ making record as 
the case proceeded. This of course shuts out in 
these cases " retroactive illusions of memory." 

(3.) " Telepathic experiences outside of exper- 
imental telepathy are of a personal and subjec- 
tive nature ; hence, outside of the scope of scien- 
tific evidence." 

Reply: If the "subject," j9/'^6»r to the verifi- 
cation of his " message " or impression, related it 



Question- Begging Materialism. 47 

to witnesses or recorded it in writing, be has 
thereby made it perfectly competent evidence. 
The S. P. R. proceedings abound with such 
cases. 

(4) Yeridical prevision is " explained " as 
" unconscious perception of the shadow already 
present, but coming before the event." This, 
however, is a psychical and not a physical ex- 
planation. All that is claimed by the "l!»[ew 
Psychology " for veridical prevision is that it 
consists of " coming events " casting " their 
shadows before" in the so-called "unconscious 
mind " which delivers up its contents to con- 
sciousness. 

Turning now from specific objections, we ap- 
prehend that the real difficulty in admitting the 
possibility of telepathy and kindred superphysical 
phenomena, notwithstanding their overwhelming 
attestation, lies in the supposition that their ac- 
knowledgment would violate the scientific doc- 
trine of nature's uniformity. On the material- 
istic hypothesis they certainly do play havoc 
with that doctrine. What then ? Plainly either 
the materialistic hypothesis or the doctrine of 
nature's uniformity must go by the board ; and 
we feel confident that the latter will not be the 
one to go. 

There are two questions concerned here; one 
a priori, and the other empirical. 

The a priori question is that which relates to 
nature's uniformity. If we deny that doctrine, 



48 Question-Begging Materialistn. 

all is lost ; the world becomes a chaos ; theism 
itself something distressing to contemplate. The 
doctrine of nature's uniformity must stand as 
the axiom of axioms. 

The empirical question is this : Are telepathy 
and kindred phenomena well-established facts, 
or not? The answer has been given that they 
stand attested by the most irrefragible proofs. 

This being the case, the unavoidable conclusion 
is that they are part and parcel of nature's uni- 
formity. In other words, they are not miraGU- 
lous, not violations of nature's order. If mira- 
cles be defined as violations of nature's order, 
then most assuredly miracles do not happen. If 
they are simply supernormal phenomena, i. e., 
supernormal as viewed from a physical plane, 
then there is involved no conflict with the axiom 
of axioms, — nature's uniformity. There is in- 
volved, however, the relegation of the physical 
or material from an exclusive to a relative posi- 
tion in the cosmic constitution. 

But, as we have shown, the materialists prac- 
tically confine the defense of their own theory 
to hurling anathemas against those who have 
made good the facts which annihilate it. They 
assume the truth of materialism in order to 
refute, a priori^ facts whose admission would 
render materialism an untenable theory ! 

In conclusion, we submit that a legitimate 
field for hypothesis-building has been opened by 
the superphysical data established by psychical 



Question- Begging Materialism. 49 

research. Though the nature of the data ex- 
cludes materialistic hypotheses, this considera- 
tion by no means inhibits us from looking for 
definite conditions and laws on a higher plane 
according to which superphysical phenomena 
occur; laws and conditions capable of as exact 
formulation as are those which govern purely 
physical phenomena. 

Dr. Thomson J. Hudson's well-known book, 
" The Law of Psychic Phenomena " stands as a 
masterpiece of that which can be done in the 
way of formulating exact conditions according 
to which superphysical phenomena occur, and 
demonstrating how far such phenomena are re- 
moved from the realm of superstition and caprice. 
While we dissent from Dr. Hudson's hypothesis, 
on the ground that it fails to take into account 
many important and well-established facts, we 
stand with him in recognizing that superphysical 
phenomena are part and parcel of nature's uni- 
formity, and in confidently hoping that the time 
is not far off when their laws and conditions 
will be as apparent as are those of the material 
department of nature. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE MIRACLES OF MODERN TIMES. 

Showing the classes of superphysical phenomena established by 
psychic research. 

The " mii-acles " of which we shall now speak 
and for which we shall present evidence, are 
miracles only to those for whom, the physical 
represents the all of reality. To others they 
are only stiper])}ij sicsul phenomena; that is, oc- 
currences which transcend purely material con- 
ditions but none the less manifest laws in a 
higher department of nature. 

Having" shown in the preceding chapter that 
d priori objections cannot validly exclude the 
empirical evidence upon which superphysical 
phenomena stand accredited, we shall now pro- 
ceed to present the evidence as brought to light 
by psychical research. 

Our sources of authority are contained in the 
Bibliography prefixed to Part II. Among those 
sources we would lay especial stress upon (1) the 
volume of the Proceedings of the Society for 
Psychical Research ; (2) upon " Phantasms of the 
Living" (2 vols.) by Messrs. Gurney, Podmore 
and Myers, prominent members of that society ; 

50 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 51 

(3) upon Mr. Podmore's concise summary of the 
Society for Psychical Kesearch proceedings in 
his book, " Apparitions and Thought Trans- 
ference " ; (4) upon Sir William Crookes' " Re- 
searches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism," as 
well as upon his report concerning his seances 
with D. D. Home, contained in Part XY of the 
Proceedings ; (5) upon the report of the London 
Dialectical Society ; (6) upon Henry S. Olcott's 
"People from the Other "World"; (T) upon 
Thomson J. Hudson's " Law of Psychic Phe- 
nomena " ; (8) upon the psychic articles con- 
tributed to " Harper's Magazine " for April, June 
and August, 1900, the first two by Professor 
James Hyslop, the last by Dr. Hudson ; (9) upon 
Camille Flammarion's " The Unknown " ; (10) upon 
Professor T. Flournoy's " From India to the Planet 
Mars " ; (11) upon Dr. Paul Gibier's " Psychism " ; 
(12) upon Dr. Robert Hare's " Spiritualism Scien- 
tifically Demonstrated," and (13) upon the Rev. 
Arthur Chambers' " Man and the Spiritual World." 

We would also call attention to the following 
works upon Hypnotic Therapeutics : (1) that of 
Dr. O. G. Wetterstrand ; (2) that of Dr. H. 
Bernheim ; (3) that of Dr. Schrencknotzing ; 

(4) that of Dr. G. Lloyd Tuckey ; (5) that of 
Dr. John D. Quackenbos ; and (6) that of Dr. 
R. Osgood Mason. 

Now let us proceed to the classification of 
the supernormal phenomena brought to light by 
psychical research : 



52 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

Class I. 

Phenomena of Subliminal Memory ; or Cryptomnesia. 

Subliminal refers to that part of the intelli- 
gence whose activity is below the threshold of 
the so-called normal or waking intelligence. The 
term cryptomnesia — " hidden memory " — was 
coined by Professor T. Flournoy of the Geneva 
University, Switzerland. As illustrations of this 
phenomenon we have cases of people who, in 
trance or delirium, repeat (for example) passages 
from foreign languages of whose meaning they 
are objectively ignorant, but which they have 
chanced to hear in the course of some previous 
waking experience. For instance, an ignorant 
German servant girl in delirium repeats pas- 
sages of Kabbinical Hebrew which in a previous 
waking state she had heard recited by a Jewish 
Kabbi. Again, many persons resuscitated after 
submersion in water testify to seeing before con- 
sciousness leaves them a panoramic view of their 
past lives in every minute detail. Again, a 
Mile. Smith carries on in a series of seances in 
the presence of Professor Flournoy conversations 
in a language supposed to be that of the planet 
Mars. Professor Flournoy on analyzing it finds 
that it is an adaptation from the French : — a 
phenomenon partaking in part of subliminal 
memory and in part of auto-suggestive construc- 
tion. (See that author's book, "From India to 
the Planet Mars.") 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 53 

Class II. 

Subliminal Intuition. 

There are cases on record of uneducated peo- 
ple and even of idiots displaying an intuitive 
knowledge of necessary laws and relations. 
Among these are certain noted mathematical 
prodigies ; for example, Zerah Colburn, who as 
an untutored boy could perform instantaneously 
the most astounding computations ; yet he could 
give no explanation of the processes by which he 
reached his results. It is also by intuition that 
"Blind Tom," the idiot musician, perceives the 
laws of harmony.^ 

Glass III. 

Telepathy. 

Telepathic phenomena stand next in the scale 
of interest. We venture to define telepathy as 
communion between finite minds apart from all 
channels of physical communication. 

Of telepathic phenomena observed by Psy- 
chical Research there are the following sub- 
classes : 

(A) Transference of Thought in the Normal 
8tate, — i. e., the percipient or receiver is awake, 
but in a passive condition. 

Under this head there are cases in which the 

' There is another subliminal class which may be called sub- 
normal ; viz. : secondary or multiple personality, the temporary 
or permanent inhibition of memory of identity. 



54 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

percipient, though, blindfolded, has been able to 
name or describe substances tasted by the 
" operator " who stands behind him and at some 
distance from him. (See Podmore's "Appari- 
tions," etc. Case 1, p. 21.) 

Mr. Guthrie of the S. P. E. conducted 457 
experiments in the transference of miscellaneous 
thoughts, visual, gustatorial, tactile, — etc., with 
the following results : 

Nothing perceived 70 

Wholly or partly correct 319 

Misdescriptions 68 

Total 457 

(See Podmore, Case 5, p. 34. ) 

(B) Transference of Thought in Hypnotic 
State, — i. e., the percipient is placed in the 
hypnotic condition. 

Here thoughts of numbers, (Podmore, Case 
13, p. Q&), sensations of pain, (Podmore, Case 
11, p. 60) and visual ideas, such as diagrams, 
etc., (Podmore, Case 16, p. Y6) have been trans- 
ferred from operator to percipient. 

(C) Telepathic Production of Movements. 
Hypnotic subjects have been by the operator 

silently willed to do certain things on awaking, 
and have obeyed. (Podmore, Case 23, p. 89.) 

(D) Induction of Hypnosis at a Distance. 
Experiments in the induction of hypnosis at 

distances averaging one mile are reported by 



The Miracles of Ilodern Times. 55 

Messieurs Gibert and Janet as operators; a 
" Mme. B." being the subject. 
Kesult : 

Trials completely successful . 18 

'■'■ partially " ........ 4 

Failures , . ^ 3 

Total 25 

(Podinore, Case 29, p. 108.) 

Dr. Carl Sextus in his book on " Hypnotism " 
(p. 154) reports a case conducted near Copen- 
hagen, Denmark, where the distance was eleven 
miles. 

(E) Distant Vision ; Transference of Ideas 
Oiier a Distance. 

Gideon Haynes, a prisoner at Charlestown, 
Mass., suddenly begins describing to a visitor the 
vision of his little boy being drowned. Vision 
proved veridical. (Podmore, Case 45, p. lYO.) 

Dr. G. Dupre, of Rheims, France, has verid- 
ical vision of his little girl falling down-stairs. 
(Podmore, Case 47, p. 1Y2.) 

For many more similar cases see Podmore ; 
also Camille Flammarion's " The Unknown." 

(F) Transference of Thought m Dreams. 

A host of cases may be found related in both 

books above referred to. 

The following is a single example : 

Mr. Boyle while in India dreams of the death 

of his father-in-law in England. Ko intimation 



58 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

that latter was not in good health. Dream oc- 
curred early in morning of ISTovember 2, 1868, 
which would correspond to 10 or 11 P. m., Kov. 
1st, in England. Father-in-law died in England 
on Nov. 1st. (Podmore, Case 45, p. 170.) 

(G) Induced Telepathic Hallucinations; or 
the Deliberate Projection of Phantasms iy Liv- 
ing Agents. 

The Rev. Mr. Godfrey, an English clergyman, 
makes his phantasmal form visible to a lady 
several miles distant. (Podmore, Case 61, p. 
228.) " Bertha," a patient of Dr. Gibotteau, of 
Havre, France, projects terrifying shapes before 
the doctor's vision while the latter is at home in 
a different part of the city. (Podmore, Case 40, 
p. 139 f.) 

(H) Phantasms of the Dying. 

The two volumes " Phantasms of the Living " 
by Messrs. Gurney, Podmore and Myers, abound 
with cases of phantasms projected by agents, at- 
or near the moment of death. 

To cite one of many hundreds of such cases : 
On June 10th, 1877, Dr. Carat saw apparition of 
his mother in a bright and silvery light. Time : 
between 10 P. m. and midnight. ]N"ext morning 
at breakfast Dr. Carat related his experience to 
a friend, M. Larouche. On the following day he 
received the news that his mother had died on 
June 10th. 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 57 

(I) " Telepathie a TroisP 

This kind of telepathy has been made familiar 
to the reading public by Dr. Hudson in his 
article "Evidences of Life after Death" in 
"Harper's Magazine" for August, 1900. Its 
principle is this : A sends a telepathic message 
to B. B, however, fails to raise this message 
" above the threshold " to objective perception. 
It remains latent in B's subliminal department 
of consciousness. But B chances to visit C, who 
is a " spirit-medium." C at once reads A's mes- 
sage from B's subliminal consciousness. Dr. 
Hudson's article contains many cases in point. 

Class IV. 

Independent Clairvoyance. 

We define this phenomenon as the ability of 
mind, under certain conditions, of obtaining ulti- 
mately verifiable knowledge apart from all finite 
mental agency. 

Under this head would fall certain cases of 
" Distant Sight," either in dream or in waking 
vision, and all cases of Veridical Prevision or 
Fulfilled ProjpTiecy. 

Inasmuch as some psychic authorities dispute 
the existence of independent clairvoyance, we 
shall have to dwell more in detail upon this sub- 
ject than we did upon the almost universally ad- 
mitted phenomenon of telepathy. 

Dr. Hudson justly observes that as the field of 



58 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

telepathy enlarges, that of clairvoyance contracts. 
It is certainly true that a multitude of cases for- 
merly ascribed to clairvoyance must now be as- 
signed to "Telepathie a Trois." Possibly Dr. 
Hudson was justified in asserting, as he did in 
the 18th Edition (1899) of his "Law of Psychic 
Phenomena," that the evidence for independent 
clairvoyance up to that date was insufficient ; 
though there stands as a modern classic the fa- 
mous Cazotte Prophecy of 1788 fulfilled in every 
particular. 

At the risk of imposing upon the reader that 
which is already familiar to him, we would say 
in passing that M. Cazotte was a Frenchman ; 
that at a gathering of friends in Paris in 
1Y88 he correctly prophesied the future of each 
one. M. La Harpe, member of the French 
Academy of Science, recorded Cazotte's words at 
the time. Hence the fact that Cazotte's words 
were spoken before the events rests upon high 
attestation. Amid the laughter of his friends M. 
Cazotte predicted that Condorcet would take 
poison in prison ; that Chamfort would open his 
veins with a razor ; that D'Azyr would cause his 
veins to be opened to relieve gout and would die 
shortly afterwards ; that Nicolai, Bailley and 
Malesherbes would die on the scaffold ; that these 
events would all occur within six years from that 
date (1788) ; and that La Harpe would become a 
Christian. La Harpe vouches that all these 
events were predicted. He is but one man to be 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 59 

sure and yet one whose reputation for integrity 
and honor was always of the highest amongst his 
contemporaries. 

Eecently two eminent men have come forward 
with evidence that will be, we are persuaded, 
pronounced irrefragible. These two men are 
Mr. W. T. Stead, the distinguished editor of the 
London Review of Reviews and M. Camille 
Flammarion, the world-renowned French as- 
tronomer. 

Mr. Stead publishes an account of a seance 
which he, along with an interpreter, held with 
the famous Parisian clairvoyante Mme. Mon- 
gruel, on July 7th, 1900. It occurred to Mr. 
Stead to test that clairvoyante's power by in- 
quiring as to the fate of the ambassadors at Pe- 
king, whose condition at that time was a sealed 
mystery. Mme. Mongruel described their then 
situation accurately, as subsequent reports re- 
vealed. But this might be ascribed to " Tele- 
pathie a Trois." However, she went on and de- 
scribed in detail the circumstances under which 
the besieged ambassadors were to be delivered. 
The known events of the following month con- 
firmed this description in every detail. Here 
then was a case removed even from " Telepathie 
a Trois " ; a clear case of veridical prevision^ 
hence of independent clairvoyance. 

The evidence for independent clairvoyance ad- 
duced by M. Camille Flammarion is contained in 
his recent book, " The Unknown " ; (L'Inconnu) 



60 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

English translation published by Harper &^ 
Brothers, 1900. (Be it observed in passing that 
as a reference book for the evidence of telepathy 
in its various forms, this work will be accorded 
an equal rank with " Phantasms of the Living " 
and "Apparitions and Thought Transference.") 
However, we shall confine our citations from 
this book to cases of independent clairvoyance. 

Many of those ascribed by the author to " dis- 
tant sight " are properly ascribable to telepathy ; 
but a few are not. On the other hand a few 
ascribed by the author to veridical prevision, 
(premonitory dreams) are ascribable to telepathy. 
The majority of the latter, as any reader may 
see, are clearly independent of finite mental 
agency. Among the former (distant sight) are 
several cases (which the reader may find in 
chapter viii, pp. 3Y7-422) of the perception in 
dreams of distant localities hitherto unvisited and 
unknown by the percipients, but afterwards vis- 
ited by them and seen to correspond in ever}'^ de- 
tail to the contents of their previous dreams. 

Of premonitory dreams involving veridical 
prevision there is a goodly number cited in 
chapter ix. 

Space limits confine us to the quotation of a 
single case ; viz., that of a theft described for the 
"sitter" by a professional clairvoj^ante in the 
trance state {telepatliie a trois) and the execution 
of the thief there and then foretold two years 
before the event, ( YeridiGal prevasion independ- 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 61 

ent of telepathy.) The case is related from 
pages 468 to 4^2. On the supernormal descrip- 
tion of thief and theft we need not dwell, for the 
thief was a servant in the sitter's (Lady A's) 
household, who, as we may assume, committed 
along with his deed the psychically commonplace 
act of telepathing his transaction to the "sub- 
liminal " of Lady A ; and the clairvoyante read 
the thief's telepathic message from Lady A's 
" subliminal." But telepathy is transcended when 
the clairvoyante announces that " two years later 
the criminal would suffer capital punishment." 

" Two years after the event described. Lady A 
received a summons from the Tribunal of the 
Seine to appear in Paris as a witness. The 
person who committed the robbery in her house 
had been found. He had just been taken into 
custody. Le Petit (by which name the culprit 
had been known while in Lady A's employ) 
gifted with so many excellent qualities, was no 
other than Marchandon, the murderer of Madame 
Cornet. As is well known, he suffered capital 
punishment, as the clairvoyante in Eue Notre- 
Dame-de-Loratte had told us." 

The investigator of this case appends the fol- 
lowing " Eemark " : 

" This case of clairvoyance is absolutely ex- 
traordinary. We have seen Lady A, who 
confirmed the accuracy of the preceding re- 
cital. . . . 

(Signed) " Daeieux." 



62 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

In summing up the evidence for veridical pre- 
vision and distant sight in his concluding chap- 
ter. M. Flammarion writes : 

" A young girl sees beforehand, in a dream, the 
man whom she will marry (p. 427). ... A 
magistrate sees three years in advance the com- 
mission of a crime down to the smallest details 
(p. 429). Several persons report that they have 
seen towns and landscapes before they have ever 
visited them, and have seen themselves in situa- 
tions in which they found themselves long after 
(p. 436-445). A mother hears her daughter an- 
nounce her intended marriage six months before 
it has been thought of (p. 449). Frequent cases 
of death are (fore) told with precision. A theft 
is seen by ^ somnambulist, etc." 

" My readers," adds the author, (p. 435) " will 
have been ^ble to judge and appreciate in this 
volume . ^ . . forty-nine examples of sight at 
a distance in dreams and somnambulism ; seventy- 
four premonitory dreams and predictions of the 
future." 

When M. Flammarion's book has been di- 
gested, doubts as to the sufficiency of evidence 
for independent clairvoyance will, we surmise, be 
set at rest. 

Class Y. 

Telekinesis. 

This phenomenon is commonly defined as the 
moving of ponderable objects without physical 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 63 

contact. For reasons which will be apparent 
further on, we prefer to define telekinesis as the 
act of producing inecJianical motion ujpon or 
within material substances by mental agency. 

Many who admit telepathy stumble at telekin- 
esis. There is certainly something uncanny 
about an object being moved without physical 
contact. We are at once suspicious of trickery. 
We look around for hidden strings. When Sir 
William Crookes, at one of D. D. Home's seances, 
saw a small table suddenly glide across the 
room, he said nothing ; but just before the open- 
ing of the next seance he moved that table to 
another position and satisfied himself about the 
suspected strings. Nevertheless the table re- 
peated its performance. 

And slate-writing ! " Paugh ! " we are in- 
clined to exclaim at the very mention of the sub- 
ject, as we recall the numerous mechanical tricks 
connected with this performance. Has not Wm. 
E. Kobinson, assistant to the late Hermann, 
thoroughly exposed the fraudulency of this 
" game " in his book " Spirit Slate- Writing and 
Kindred Phenomena " ? Yes, when the " me- 
dium " is upon his own ground, say upon a stage, 
or within a specially prepared apartment, there 
may be no end to the hidden strings, prepared 
slates, electrical apparatus, etc., of which he may 
make use. Suppose, however, you buy your own 
slate, and do not permit it to come within the 
medium's touch, and then obtain a message upon 



64 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

it ? Is the phenomenon in that case physical or 
superphysical, kinetic or telekinetic ? 

Says Dr. Hudson, in his " Divine Pedigree of 
Man," (pages 3Y0, 3Y1) : " I am aware that I shall 
run counter to the prejudices of some and trans- 
cend the sphere of observation of many, when I 
say that this (telekinesis) is the power exercised 
by so-called ' spirit-mediums ' when they cause 
tables or other ponderous bodies to be levitated. 
I can only say to the skeptical that I know 
(italics his) the power to exist, having for more 
than thirty years of my life pursued the investi- 
gation of so-called spiritistic phenomena, under 
the strictest test conditions." 

T. Flournoy, professor of psychology in the 
University of Geneva, Switzerland, adds his tes- 
timony, as follows : 

" The probability of the movement of objects 
without contact has reached with me a degree 
practically equivalent with certitude, thanks to 
M. Richet, to whom I am indebted for my pres- 
ence at his house last year at several seances of 
Eusapia Paladino, under conditions of control 
which gave no room for doubt. . . . From 
that moment I believed in telekinesis by con- 
straint of the perception, sensata et oculata certi- 
tudine, to borrow the expression of Galileo, who 
certainly did not mean by that an unreflecting 
adhesion to the evidences of the senses, like that 
of the casual onlooker at the tricks of the presti- 
digitator, but rather the final crowning of an 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 65 

evidence having for its rational framework the 
reasoned analysis of the conditions of observa- 
tion, and of the concrete circumstances surround- 
ing the production of the phenomenon." — (" From 
India to the Planet Mars," p. 380.) 

Interesting testimony by the Rev. Minot J. 
Savage, D. D., to the levitation of an accordion 
by an invisible force may be found in his book, 
" Life Beyond Death," pp. 303, 304. 

Those who are familiar with the history of 
modern psychic phenomena would not be willing 
to pass over certain other reliable evidences of 
telekinesis established before the founding of the 
Society for Psychical Research. 

Among these stands the famous report of the 
London Dialectical Society completed early in 
the "seventies." This report is, we believe, still 
in print ; and we need only say that those who 
drew it up conducted their investigations impar- 
tially and under the strictest test conditions that 
skeptics could devise. "While some of the sub- 
committees obtained negative results, and some 
only slight ones, others obtained levitations, etc., 
of an indisputably telekinetic character. To 
mention just one, — the most remarkable — the 
levitation of a heavy table was obtained while 
the medium and some of the members of the 
sub-committee in full light were kneeling upon 
chairs placed with backs to the table, they them- 
selves facing table and holding their hands sev- 
eral inches above its surface. At the same time 



66 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

two other members were lying upon the floor 
closely watching the feet, legs and lower portion 
of the table for any possible fraud. 

Undoubtedly the most convincing demonstra- 
tions of telekinesis ever conducted are those 
which are described in the Quarterly Journal of 
Science (London) by that peerless scientist, Sir 
William Crookes, F. R. S. Mr. Crookes' inves- 
tigations here referred to extended from 1870 to 
1874 ; and while first published at various inter- 
vals in the above named magazine, were subse- 
quently embodied in a book entitled " Researches 
in the Phenomena of Spiritualism." The value 
of these investigations is enormous in view of the 
scientific prominence of the investigator, the 
elaborate mechanical apparatus which he devised 
and the strict tests which he employed to elim- 
inate all possible sources of error. 

The confidence which the scientific world felt 
in Mr. Crookes, when it was announced that he 
was about to investigate the so-called phenomena 
of spiritualism, is referred to by Mr. Crookes 
himself under the compulsion of defense against 
the calumniations of materialistic dogmatists 
after his results were found to militate against 
materialism. 

" When I first stated," writes Mr. Crookes, ^ 
" in this journal that I was about to investigate 
the phenomena of so-called spiritualism, the an- 
nouncement called forth universal expressions of 

^ Quarterly Journal of Science, Oct. 1, 1871. 



The 3Iiracles of Modern Times. 61 

approval. One said that my 'statements de- 
served respectful consideration'; another ex- 
pressed profound satisfaction that ' the subject 
was about to be investigated by a man so thor- 
oughly qualified as,' etc. ; a third was 'gratified 
to learn that the matter is now receiving the at- 
tention of cool and clear-headed men, of recog- 
nized position in science ' ; a fourth asserted that 
' no one could doubt Mr. Crookes' ability to con- 
duct the investigation with rigid philosophical 
impartiality ' ; and a fifth was good enough to 
tell his readers that 'if men like Mr. Crookes 
grapple with the subject, taking nothing for 
granted until it is proved, we shall soon know 
how much to believe.' 

" These remarks," observes Mr. Crookes, " were 
written too hastily. It was taken for granted 
by the writers that the results of my experi- 
ments would be in accordance with their pre- 
conceptions. "What they really desired was not 
the truth, ^ but an additional witness in favor of 
their own foregone conclusion. When they 
found that the facts which that investigation es- 
tablished could not be made to fit those opinions, 
why — ' so much the worse for the facts.' " 

And what were the facts ? 

The following general statement by Mr. 
Crookes will serve to introduce us to them:^ 

" That certain physical phenomena, such as the 
movement of material substances, and the pro- 

^ Italics are Mr. Crookes'. ^ Eesearches, etc., p. 3. 



68 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

duction of sounds resembling electric discharges, 
occur under circumstances in which they cannot 
be explained by any physical law at present 
known, is a fact of which I am as certain as I 
am of the most elementary fact in chemistry. 
My whole scientific education has been one long 
lesson in exactness of observation, and I wish it 
to be distinctly understood that this firm convic- 
tion is the result of most careful investigation." 

The following are the classes of phenomena 
observed by Mr. Crookes, nearly all of which are 
telekinetic. The report of them, be it said, was 
written for the Quarterly Journal for January, 
1874, and they cover the experiments of the 
years 1870-73. They do not include the phe- 
nomenon of psycho-chemicalization cited in our 
next section from Mr. Crookes' report to the 
London S. P. E. (Part XV) covering later exper- 
iments. 

Mr. Crookes prefaces his classification by say- 
ing : 

" My readers will remark that, with the ex- 
ception of cases specially mentioned, the occur- 
rences have taken place in my own house, in the 
light, arid with only private friends present^ be- 
sides the medium." 

I. The movement of heavy lodies with contact, 
hut without mechanical exertion. 
In connection with this class, there is recorded 

^ Italics, Mr. Crookes'. 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 69 

this observation : " These movements (and in- 
deed I may say the same of every kind of phe- 
nomena) are generally preceded by a peculiar 
cold air, sometimes amounting to a decided wind. 
I have had sheets of paper blown about by it, 
and a thermometer lowered several degrees. On 
some occasions, which I will subsequently give 
more in detail, I have not detected any actual 
movement in the air, but the cold has been so in- 
tense that I could only compare it to that felt 
when the hand has been within a few inches of 
frozen mercury." 

II. The Phenomena of Percussion and Other 
Allied Sounds. 

" Actual contact " (of the medium with the ob- 
ject) observes Mr. Crookes, " is not always neces- 
sary ; I have had these sounds proceeding from 
the floor, walls, etc., when the medium's hands 
and feet were held — when she was standing on a 
chair — when she was suspended in a swing from 
the ceiling — when she was enclosed in a wire 
cage — and when she had fallen fainting on a 
sofa." 

III. The Alteration of Weight of Bodies. 
Description of Test Apparatus : ^ " It con- 
sisted of a mahogany board thirty inches long by 

^ Equally Interesting and scientific are the various automatic 
devices employed by Professor Hare of the University of Penn- 
sylvania many years before Mr. Crookes' investigations. See 
Dr. Hare's "Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated." 



TO The Miracles of Modern Times. 

nine and one-half inches wide and one inch thick. 
At each end a strip of mahogany one and one- 
half inches wide was screwed on, forming feet. 
One end of the board rested on a firm table, 
whilst the other end was supported by a spring 
balance hanging from a substantial tripod stand. 
The balance was fitted with a self -registering in- 
dex in such a manner that it would record the 
maximum weight indicated by the pointer. The 
apparatus was adjusted so that the mahogany 
board was horizontal, its foot resting flat on the 
support. In this position its weight was three 
pounds, as marked by the pointer of the balance." 

Experiments. "Mr. Home (the medium) 
placed the tips of his fingers lightly on the ex- 
treme end of the mahogany board which was 
resting on the support, while Dr. A. B. and my- 
self sat, one on each side of it, watching for any 
effect which might be produced. Almost imme- 
diately the pointer of the balance was seen to 
descend. After a few seconds it rose again. 
This movement was repeated several times, as if 
by successive waves of the psychic force. The 
end of the board was observed to oscillate slowly 
up and down during the experiment." 

Alterations of weight varying from six and 
one-half to nine pounds were automatically reg- 
istered. 

Similar experiments are recorded in Sir 
William Crookes' report to the S. P. R. in Part 
XV of the "proceedings." 



The 3Iiracles of Modern Times. 11 

IV. Movements of Heavy Substances when at 
a Distance f roan the Medium. 

Among other notes stands this : " On three 
successive evenings a small table moved slowly 
across the room, under conditions which I had 
specially prearranged, so as to answer any ob- 
jection which might be raised to the evidence." 

V. The Rising of Tables and Chairs off the 
Ground, without Contact with any Person. 

" On five separate occasions a heavy dining- 
table rose between a few inches and one and one- 
half feet oif the floor, under special circumstances 
which rendered trickery impossible. On another 
occasion, a heavy table rose from the floor, in 
full light, while I was holding the medium's 
hands and feet. On another occasion the table 
rose from the floor, not only when no person was 
touching it, but under conditions which I had 
prearranged so as to secure unquestionable 
proof of the fact." 

YI. The Levitation of Htiman Beings. 
" The most striking cases of levitation which I 
have witnessed have been with Mr. Home. On 
three separate occasions have I seen him raised 
completely from the floor of the room. Once 
sitting in an easy chair, once kneeling on his 
chair, and once standing up. On each occasion 
I had full opportunity of watching the occurrence 
as it was taking place." 



72 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

YII. Movement of Various Small Articles 
without Contact with any Person. 

Mr. Crookes mentions an accordion floating 
about the room playing a tune ; the waving of 
window curtains and pulling up of Yenetian 
blinds eight feet from the medium's person ; the 
occult tying of a knot in a handkerchief in a far 
corner of the room from the medium's person, 
the sounding of notes on a distant piano, a card 
plate floating about the room, etc., etc. 

YIII. Luminous Appearances. 

"Under the strictest test conditions, I have 
seen a solid self-luminous body, the size and 
nearly the shape of a turkey's Qgg, float noise- 
lessly about the room," etc. " During this time 
the medium was lying back, apparently insensible, 
in an easy chair." 

IX. The Appearance of Sands, either 8elf- 
LuQuinous, or Visible hy Ordinary Light. 

One of these hands Mr. Crookes grasped, when 
it " gradually seemed to resolve itself into 
vapor, and faded in that manner from my 
grasp." 

X. Direct Writing. 

A case is related of a luminous hand which 
" came down from the upper part of the room, 
and after hovering near me for a few seconds, 
took the pencil from my hand, rapidly wrote on 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 73 

a sheet of paper, threw the pencil down, and 
then rose up over our heads, gradually fading 
into darkness." 

XI. Phantom Forms and Faces. 

" A phantom form came from a corner of the 
room, took an accordion in its hand, and then 
glided about the room playing the instrument. 
The form was visible to all present for many 
minutes, Mr. Home also being seen at the same 
time." 

XII. Special Instances which seem to jpoint to 
the Agency of an Exterior Intelligence. 

These are cases of veridical answers given by 
raps, planchettes, etc. 

XIII. MisceUa7ieous Occurrences of a Com- 
plex Character., e. g., the passage of a hand-bell 
from one room to another, apparently through 
the solid walls or closed door. 

XIV. The Materialization ' of the Psychic 
Foi'm " Katie King,'''' tlirongh the mediumship of 
Florence Cooh. 

(The above caption is ours, not Sir William 
Crookes'.) This materialized " Psychic Form " 
manifested itself to Mr. Crookes and others at 

^ On materializing phenomena we would commend Col. 
H. S. Olcott's " People From the Other World," and article in 
"Suggestive Therapeutics" (Chicago) Dec. 1900, "The 
mediumship of ' Farmer Eiley.' " 



74 The Iliracles of Modern Times. 

many seances through Florence Cook's medium- 
ship. The form was to all appearances a live, 
charming, flesh-and-blood woman who permitted 
Mr. Crookes to hold her in his arms, register her 
pulse, listen to the heart-throbs and take about 
forty-five photographs of her, as well as to cut 
off and retain a lock of her hair. On several oc- 
casions Mr. Crookes saw this form (who called 
herself " Katie King " and conversed very 
volubly) — saw her and the medium at the same 
time. On the occasion of her last materialization, 
Mr. Crookes and another witness within the cabi- 
net minutely surveyed both " Katie " and Miss 
Cook by the aid of a phosphorus lamp. (Re- 
searches, etc., pages 102-112.) 

General Note. On p. 93 of his " Researches " 
Mr. Crookes discusses theories to account for the 
phenomena and gives in his advocacy to that 
which he calls " Psychic Force," a name sug- 
gested to him by one of his fellow-investigators, 
Mr. Serjeant Cox. " It is obvious," he writes, 
" that a ' medium ' possesses a something which is 
not possessed by an ordinary being. Give this 
something a name. Call it 'X' if you like. Mr. 
Serjeant Cox calls it psychic force." 

Class VI. 

Psycho- Chemicalization. 

By this we denote the production by psychic 
agency of chemical changes in matter. 

The term, we are aware, is a new label. It 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 75 

does not, however, represent a new phenomenon, 
as we shall hope to show. 

Psycho-chemicalization seems to be manifested 
in many cases of psychic healing. 

There are, as all know, certain diseases which 
are due to the presence of chemical substances in 
the system resulting from imperfect metabolisms. 
Any process which would neutralize these sub- 
stances would necessarily be a process of counter- 
chemicalization. Psychic force has been known 
to neutralize such substances ; hence we have 
P^^/cAo-chemicalization. 

Physical health is always dependent upon the 
proper proportion of chemical substances manu- 
factured by the nuclei of the tissue-cells. Certain 
toxic or poisonous substances are constantly accu- 
mulating within the bodily system. Health de- 
pends upon the regular elimination of these leu- 
comains, toxins and toxalbumins. If their elimina- 
tion bechecked, all sorts of deleterious results are 
likely to ensue. For example, rheumatism is sup- 
posed to be due to the accumulation of an acid — 
some authorities say uric acid, (an imperfectly oxi- 
dized proteid), and others lactic acid. This acid, 
uneliminated, neutralizes the alkalies, forming 
sodium biurate, or lactate, a highly irritating sub- 
stance in the system. The result is a precipita- 
tion at the joints and other parts of a sort of 
brick-dust substance which produces the stiffness, 
lameness and excruciating pain characteristic of 
this disease. The medical treatment of rheuma- 



76 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

tism consists mostly of doses of alkaline medi- 
cines. The effect of this medicine is to reenf orce 
the depleted alkalinity in the blood. Here then 
we have a case of chemicalization hj ^physical 
agency. But rheumatism has been found to 
yield very readily to psycho-therapeutic treat- 
ment. What happens in that case ? The nuclei 
are stimulated to resume their normality in the 
complete oxidation of the proteids, urea resulting 
instead of uric acid. Here we have an illustra- 
tion of psycho-chemicalization ; that is of chemic- 
alization in the body due to mental agency, 
whereby the alkalinity of the blood is maintained 
at a normal state. 

That chemicalization (whether psychic or 
physical) is a fact we are able to prove by other 
methods. For example, in diphtheria the 
system is poisoned by a substance called a toxins, 
which is the result of an infection produced by 
invasion of the 'bacillus diphtherim. Experience 
has proved that this toxine can be neutralized 
within the body (and also in isolation within a 
" culture ") by an anti-toxin called anti-dijphthe- 
ritic serum. 

A perfect demonstration of this chemicaliza- 
tion is shown by what is known as the Widal 
reaction. If a drop of blood from a person with 
typhoid fever of a week's duration or more is 
mixed with a few drops of a pure culture of 
Bacillus Typhosus, we observe by aid of the 
microscope that in fifteen to thirty minutes the 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 77 

motility of these germs ceases, and the germs 
themselves form small clusters known as " clump- 
ing." This reaction does not take place when 
blood from persons suffering from other diseases 
is used. 

In pneumonia the principle of neutralization is 
the same. "We have seen a patient's temperature 
fall in one hour from 103° F. to 100° F. after 
an injection of the anti-pneuTnococcus serum. 
The same principle of chemical neutraliza- 
tion, or chetnicalisation, is demonstrated in 
tetanus, bubonic plague, and several other dis- 
eases. 

Again, in most of the acute infectious diseases 
the injection of a toxin greatly attenuated will 
cause the system (whether of a human being or 
of an animal) to manufacture for itself an anti- 
toxin which will render person or animal, (as the 
case may be) immune to that disease. This is 
most conspicuously illustrated in the cases of 
rabies and smallpox. 

We are indebted to Mr. Leroy Berrier, of 
Minneapolis, for bringing to our attention in his 
book, " Cultivation of Personal Magnetism," the 
following quotation from Professor Elmer Gates, 
which most beautifully illustrates psycho-chemic- 
alization : 

" In 18Y6," Mr. Gates writes, " I published a 
report of experiments showing that when the 
breath of a patient was passed through a tube 
cooled with ice, so as to condense the volatile 



78 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

qualities of the respiration, the iodide of 
rhodopsin mingled with these condensed prod- 
ucts produced no observable precipitate. But 
within five minutes after the patient became 
angry there appeared a brownish precipitate, 
which indicates the presence of a cheTnical com- 
pound produced hy emotion. This compound ex- 
tracted and administered to men and animals, 
caused stimulation and excitement. Extreme 
sorrow . . . produced a gray precipitate ; 
remorse, a pink precipitate, etc. My experi- 
ments show that irascible, malevolent and de- 
pressing emotions . . . generate in the sys- 
tem injurious compounds, some of which are ex- 
tremely poisonous; also that agreeable, happy 
emotions generate chemical compounds of nu- 
tritious value, which stimulate the cells to 
manufacture energy." 

Thus the psychic production of chemicalization 
in the matter composing the human body stands 
established ; not that we depend upon the ex- 
periments above cited to pronounce our case 
proved. The perversion of the natural secretions 
by psychic causes has been known to physiolo- 
gists for many years. The following case is 
cited in Carpenter's " Mental Physiology " 
(p. 6T9) as a " classic " : 

A wife and mother who saw her husband 
about to be killed by a soldier rushed between 
the two to save her spouse. Shortly afterwards 
she nursed her baby who had never before been 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 79 

ill, with the result that the little one soon left off 
nursing, became restless, panted and sank dead 
upon its mother's bosom. 

Dr. Carpenter cites several similar cases. 

Psycho-chemicalization has been produced also 
upon inorganic matter. This is vouched for by- 
no less an authority than Sir William Crookes. 
It is a phenomenon of which he was an eye- 
witness, as he tells us in his report of his seances 
with D. D. Home, in Part XV of the S. P. E. 
Proceedings. Mr. Home borrowed a cambric 
handkerchief from one of the members of the 
"circle," and taking a burning coal from the 
grate, wrapped it up in the handkerchief. He 
then blew upon the coal until it became white- 
hot. The result was, as Sir William Crookes 
reports, "a small hole about half an inch in 
diameter was burned in the centre, and there 
were two small points near it, but it was not 
even singed anywhere else, I took the handker- 
chief away with me," — Sir William continues, — 
" and on testing it in my laboratory found that it 
had not undergone the slightest chemical prep- 
aration which could have rendered it fire-proof." 
In other words, the chemicalization was psychic 
and not physical. 

In D. D. Home's book, "Incidents in My 
Life," this " fire-test " is recorded as one of his 
oft-repeated phenomena before many reliable 
witnesses. AVe have selected Mr. Crookes' ac- 
count out of the many that might be cited in 



80 The Miracles of Modern Times. 

deference to the reasonable demand for high 
scientific authority.^ 

Again, Col. H. S. Olcott in his book, " Peopk 
From the Other World," reports (pp. 289-90)' 
that in his presence the medium William Eddy^ 
of Chittenden, Yermont, drew a dipperful of 
water from a horse-trough on the homestead 
premises, and poured it upon a chip-fire that was 
burning near by. The efl'ect produced was the 
same as though so much kerosene had been 
poured on the chips. The fire leaped into 
vigorous flames. 

As a further manifestation of psycho-chemic- 
alization we place in evidence the phenomenon 
of Materialization, of which we have spoken in 
Class Y of this chapter, as observed by Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes, concerning which also we shall 
speak in our next chapter as an occurrence wit- 
nessed many times by ourselves. 

Whence come the flesh, bones and blood of 
these materialized forms ? Whence comes the 
material fabric of their garments, drapery, etc. ? 

^ In the November (1901) issue of the CosmopoZttan appears 
an article entitled ' ' A Curious Eeligious Eite, ' ' by Earnestine 
Coughran. The writer graphically describes how the Hawaiian 
priest or sorcerer, Papa Ita, in the presence of a large audience 
walked barefooted over a pile of shimmering hot lava stones 
with absolute immxmity. The stones had been artificially 
heated to an intensity perceptible thirty feet from the pile. 
Papa Ita repeated his performance foiir times. Not only was 
anaesthesia perfect, but no evidences of blistering were apparent. 

2 Edition of 1875. 



The Miracles of Modern Times. 81 

Whence came the water which dripped from the 
garments and person of the form which we saw 
and ioxicJied — if we may anticipate the phenome- 
non of which we shall give an account on page 
113 ? Whence come all these material appurte- 
nances, both organic and inorganic ? We can 
but answer that they are produced by jpsycho- 
chemiGalization, a term which stands for certain 
chemical laws and processes known only to the 
Creator and to favored ones whose habitation 
lies on the other side of the Yeil. 



Such are the well-attested superphysical phe- 
nomena of modern times : — subliminal memory 
and intuition, telepathy of various sorts, inde- 
pendent clairvoyance, telekinesis or psychic 
levitation, and psycho-chemicalization as mani- 
fested in certain phases of psychic healing and 
in materializing phenomena. Their attestation 
rests upon the highest kind of scientific testi- 
mony. The great scientists who have investi- 
gated them with candor have cheerfully acknowl- 
edged them. They stand no longer as beggars 
for official recognition ; for their fight to secure 
" good standing " has been won. The time has 
passed when he who values his reputation can say 
" superphysical phenomena do not happen." 



CHAPTER III. 

WE SPEAK THAT WE DO KNOW. 

Superphysical phenomena coming under the personal obser- 
vation of the authors : psychography, precipitated paint- 
ings, and materialization, 

§ 1. Under this caption we propose to offer 
our readers our own personal experience, direct 
and indirect, with superphysical phenomena. Of 
course this experience of ours forms but a drop 
in an ocean of testimony ; yet we have thought 
best to place it in evidence for the reason that it 
comes to the reader only at second-hand ; and for 
the further reason that our public may know 
that our convictions are based on sight-evidence. 

In referring to our experiences we shall speak 
of ourselves by name as though we had called in 
a third party to act in this chapter as editor. 

§ 2. Dr. Allen has had twenty-four years' 
acquaintance on various occasions with super- 
physical phenomena. He has been a witness of so- 
called spirit slate-writing, of materializations and 
telekinetic levitations. 

On one occasion, in February, 1889, at Buffalo, 
he held a private sitting with the famous medium, 
Slade. He sat in the capacity of an investigator, 
alert for any tricks or charlatanry that the me- 

82 



We Speak That We Do Enow. 83 

dium might try to impose ; knowing well that 
even the most genuinely proficient mediums do 
sometimes resort to trickery when psychic con- 
ditions happen to be unfavorable ; — a fact by the 
way, which Dr. T. J. Hudson and Dr. Paul 
Gibier have noted and explained in their re- 
spective works, " The Law of Psychic Phenom- 
ena," ^ and " Psychism." ^ Moreover, Mr. Slade 
had been detected in trickery by the Seybert 
Commission investigators. 

In order to eliminate trickery. Dr. Allen 
brought to the seance a schoolboy's folding slate, 
which he himself had purchased, together with a 
crayon. The seance room was brightly illumi- 
nated by the morning sunshine, and plainly 
furnished, being devoid of all cabinets and 
mechanical contrivances. At Mr. Slade's di- 
rection. Dr. Allen examined his slates, washed 
them clean, and held them banded together upon 
his left arm, grasping them by the end nearest 
to his person with his right hand. He had 
previously inserted between the slates a small bit 
of crayon, and he had taken care that they had 
not come into Mr. Slade's hands. 

The latter asked Dr. Allen from whom he 
desired a message. Dr. Allen named his father, 
who had died some ten months previously. 

The medium then placed the tips of his left 
fingers upon the doctor's left finger-tips, and with 
his right hand touched the slates at the end 

ip. 211. 2Pp. 164, 165. 



84 We Speak That We Do Know. 

opposite to that by which the doctor's right hand 
was grasping them. By craning his neck slightly, 
the doctor was able to keep in full and close 
view the procedure at the end of the slates grasped 
by Mr. Slade. 

" Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch," are the 
words with which Dr. Allen describes the 
phenomenon that ensued. After a moment or 
two of this scratching between the slates, the 
doctor, at the medium's bidding, opened and 
found upon one of the slates, a message in a fair 
hand, counseling virtue in general terms, and 
signed, " Your Father." 

The message, of course, being in perfectly 
general terms, afforded no proof of the identity 
of the supposed communicator. But the manner 
of its writing, under the conditions described, 
manifested plainly a telekinetic phenomenon. 

Dr. Allen also reports a number of similar 
slate-writing seances, held under practically 
similar conditions, at Peoria, 111., at which he 
was present. The seance room Avas filled with 
doctors, lawyers and prominent citizens, each one 
on the alert to detect fraud, but no fraud was 
discovered. 

§ 3. The following is a report of a private 
seance held by Dr. Allen and Mr. Duff with the 
Campbell brothers, at Buffalo, February Y, 1900. 
This report is a reproduction of Mr. Duff's notes 
of the seance, which were written within an hour 
after the close of the sitting : 



We Speak That We Do Know. 85 

"A private 'sitting' was arranged with, the 
Campbell brothers, at their Buffalo apart- 
ments. The date was February 7, 1900 ; ' Sit- 
ters,' Dr. Thomas G. Allen and myself ; ' Me- 
dium,' the younger of the brothers ; time of day, 
noon ; dimensions of room, about 10x10 feet ; 
furniture, chairs and a plain, ordinary dining- 
table, which I inspected carefully with ' Medium's ' 
kind permission. The room, I may say, was per- 
fectly light. I produced a schoolboy's folding- 
slate, cloth-lined around edges, and screwed to- 
gether at my own home. I sat for manifestations 
of slate- writing, but nothing came. The medium 
then suggested that possibly the slates were not 
opaque to light, owing to the cloth binding. I 
then called in Dr. Allen, who had been waiting 
in the reception-room, and between us we ripped 
the cloth off the slates, removed the screw and 
substituted rubber bands, which the medium 
furnished. We, however, kept the slates all the 
time in our owoi hands. On inspection I found 
that I could still see light through the slates, and 
suggested that they be wrapped in heavy cloth 
and then held by one of the sitters. The medium 
improved upon my suggestion by substituting a 
typewriter box, dimensions about 24x12x10 
inches. Dr. Allen and I closely inspected the 
interior and found it perfectly conventional. At 
the medium's direction I laid the slates, fastened 
together by the rubber bands, in the box, and 
placed upon them a small glass pot containing 



86 We Speak That We Do Know. 

mixed paints, said pot being closed. Dr. Allen 
closed the box and at the medium's direction 
placed both hands upon the top of the box, I 
doing the same. The medium sat at the opposite 
end of the table, about four feet distant. ' Now, 
gentlemen,' said he, ' I want you to get these 
manifestations yourselves. I shall not assist.' 
For some minutes we sat in silence, save for the 
strains of a music-box in the next room. At 
length the medium announced that a lady 
guardian of Dr. Allen's whose name seemed to 
be Yiolet,^ was present, with the promise of a 
manifestation. ' Open ! ' said the medium. Dr. 
Allen and I obeyed, but the slates were blank. 
' Take the cover from the paint pot,' said the 
medium. I did so. ' ISTow close the box.' We 
obeyed, after having again strapped together the 
slates. Again silence for a space, when the 
medium announced that a manifestation would 
be given in three minutes' time. JSTow, during 
those three minutes what passed through my 
mind was this : ' I want a manifestation of 
telekinesis.' At the end of the three minutes the 
medium bade us open. "We opened, first the 
box. Nothing was disturbed. Pot and pot- 
cover were in place. Then we opened the slates. 
J}^ear the corner of the uoider slate was (and still 
is) a little spray of flowers^ a cross, so to speah, 
between violets and pansiesP 

^ Dr. Allen disclaims acquaintance with any such person. 



We Speak That We Do Know. 87 

§ 4. At a private sitting with the same 
mediums, held by Mr. and Mrs, Duff, on No- 
vember 15, 1900, the details of which will be 
given presently, Mr. Duff's attention, just before 
the seance began, was drawn by the younger 
Mr. Campbell to the photograph of a young lady, 
Mr. Campbell stated that it was photographed 
from a precipitated oil portrait which had been ob- 
tained through the Campbell brothers' medium- 
ship at Lily Dale, N. Y.,on July 26, 1900. The 
sitter was W. S. Loomis, M, D,, of Toledo, Ohio. 
The portrait was a perfect likeness of Dr. Loomis' 
deceased daughter, Inez. There was on the back 
of the photograph a testimonial signed, " W. S. 
Loomis, M. D." Mr. Campbell kindly gave Mr. 
Duff Dr. Loomis' Toledo address. Mr. Duff 
wrote to Dr. Loomis for the kindness of an 
attestation, and received the following reply : 

''Toledo, Nov. 20th, 1900. 
" Bev. Edward M. Duff, 

" Dear Sir and Bkothee : 

' ' Yours of the 15th inst, at hand, and noted. The 
portrait of which you saw the photograph was precipitated 
through the mediumship of the Campbell brothers at Lily Dale, 
N. Y,, on the 26th day of July, between the hours of 3 and 4 
P. M. The Campbell brothers never saw the child. I had no 
photo with me ; not a thread of a garment she ever wore. "We 
were permitted to see the portrait under three different stages 
of development. 

' ' The room in which the work was done faced the west ; 
the time being 3 P. M. ; the sky clear; the shade over the win- 
dows being only partially drawn. You see the room was per- 
fectly lighted. No attempt was made to conceal anything. 



88 We Speak That We Do Know. 

The portrait is said by artists to be one of the finest produo 
tions they ever have seen. I am positive no material hand 
had anything to do v^ith the production of the portrait, 

' ' Yours truly, 

"W. S. LooMis, M. D. 
"511 Main St. 

"P. S. — I will add the portrait is a perfect likeness of the 
child. We have a cast of the face and the outlines are perfect 
vrhen compared. Anything else you "wish to know regarding 
it, I will be pleased to answer. 

' ' Yours truly, 

"W. S. LOOMIS." 

§ 5. We shall now offer a report of the seance 
at which the above described photograph was 
seen. Our report is condensed from copious and 
detailed notes taken by Mrs. E. M. Duff. 

Date, Nov. 15, 1900. 

At request of elder Campbell brother, Mrs. 
Duff wrote upon each of two slips of paper the 
name of a departed spirit from whom she desired 
a communication. One slip bore the inscrip- 
tion " My brother A " ; the other " J 

S ." This writing was done as she sat 

alone in the reception-room, Mr. C. having re- 
tired. The writer used as her desk the page of 
a book opened at random and closed as soon as 
writing was completed. The slips were placed 
together and folded twice. 

Mr. C. returned and requested sitter to hold 
slips clasped between palms. This she did for 
about ten minutes. 

Still holding them, she was escorted to seance 
room proper, where the younger Mr. Campbell 



We Bpeak That We Do Know. 89 

assumed charge. Sitter cleansed, rubbed and 
inspected four slates handed to her by Mr. C. 
Also inspected two porcelain tablets. The slips 
of paper meanwhile lay folded, as described 
above, beside sitter's handkerchief on edge of 
table nearest to her. Mr. C. sat upon opposite 
side, nearly four feet away. 

Mr. C. then selected an envelope, took up 
folded papers between thumb and forefinger, 
and, not stopping for an instant to look at them, 
dropped them within envelope and sealed 
latter. 

The authors before opening envelope after the 
seance found by tests that it was opaque ; found 
on removing slips that they were opaque as 
folded ; found also, on enquiring of sitter, that 
they were the same as those upon which she had 
written the two names. 

Mr. C. immediately placed sealed envelope, 
together with one of the porcelain tablets, 
between two of the cleansed and inspected 
slates ; — (Packet A) and banded them together. 

Another Packet — " B " — was formed in like 
manner, oninus, of course, the envelope. 

From this time until the opening of the pack- 
ets neither one of them came into the medium's 
possession. 

The sitters — Mr. Duff had been called in to 
join his wife — held packets between them ; a 
small vessel containing mixed oil-paints resting 
upon packets. Packet B was opened after a 



90 We Speak That We Do Know. 

while and found blank. At medium's request 
Mrs. Duff wrote her name on outer wooden 
margin of packet A, as a mark of identification. 

At length this packet was at medium's request 
carried by Mrs. Duff into reception-room and 
laid upon centre table. As we stood at this 
table, the younger Mr. Campbell opened packet. 
There lay the sealed envelope. Then our eyes 
caught sight of writing on inner side of upper 
slate. Next we lifted porcelain tablet and found 
to our amazement an oil-painting of a full-blown 
rose with clusters of stems and buds around it. 
The inner side of under slate also contained 
writing. The paint was still wet and odorous. 
Daubs of paint in circular form corresponding 
exactly to the circular base of the paint-vessel 
were found upon outer side of each slate — a 
further mark of identity. 

The message written upon inner side of slate 
upon whose outer wooden margin Mrs. Duff 

had written her name, was signed " J S ; 

per the guides." The message on the other 

side was signed " A , per the guides." Both 

messages were of a general nature and afforded 
no evidence as to personal identity. 

Time occupied by seance, about two hours. 

§6. On the evening of May 8, 1901, the 
authors attended a materializing seance in New 
York City given through the mediumship of 
Mrs. Williams. The proceeding took place in a 
small upper room, in the presence of a circle 



We Speak That We Do Enow. 91 

numbering twelve people, men and women. The 
cabinet consisted of a space curtained off at the 
north end of the room ; including within it an 
open fireplace, — a regrettable circumstance, even 
though, so far as we could judge, the chimney 
aperture was too small to admit of the conceal- 
ment of a confederate. The authors sat near 
the centre of a row of chairs within six feet of 
the cabinet and up to the time when the gas was 
turned off observed that the sole contents of the 
cabinet consisted of a chair in which the medium 
sat. 

As soon as the director had turned off the gas 
burners he turned on a small green-glass lantern 
that hung on the wall at the rear of the circle. 
The subdued light of this lantern enabled us to 
see distinctly all objects within the room and to 
detect any movements made by members of the 
circle. 

After a few hymns had been sung, a deep bass 
male voice within the cabinet greeted the audi- 
ence announcing itself as " Mr. Cushman " one 
of the spirit-guides. A child's voice from within 
proclaimed in hoarse whispers that it was 
" Bright Eyes," another spirit-guide. 

Thereafter, punctuating the hymns sung by 
the circle, white-clad forms began to appear, gen- 
erally one at a time, though once two forms ap- 
peared simultaneously. They varied in size from 
large men to little children. One — that of a 
woman — had a chaplet of phosphorescent light 



92 We Speak That We Do Know. 

about her brow. Oa two or three occasions 
members of the circle were called to the parted 
curtains and recognized the apparitions standing 
there as departed relatives. Many of these ap- 
paritions conversed in hoarse whispers. 

Of the numerous manifestations, two only ap- 
peared to be conclusive tests of occult agency. 
First, that of a female apparition who came forth 
and walked around the room for a short time 
arm in arm with one of the members of the 
circle. Inasmuch, however, as this member of 
the circle was personally unknown to us, we can- 
not of course attach to this test infallible evi- 
dential value. 

The second test to which we refer seems to be 
absolutely demonstrative of occult agency. It 
was this : A small white cloud appeared in mid 
air oictside of and to the left of the cabinet. It 
floated rapidly up and down, and under a small 
stand, for a few seconds and then suddenly as- 
sumed the form of a white-clad woman ; — all this 
outside of the cabinet. It then walked or glided 
forward for two or three feet ; then uttering lit- 
tle cries, as though of disappointment, it began 
to collapse before our eyes, and continued shrink- 
ing until nothing remained but a small shroud- 
like mass upon the floor of the room. This 
lingered for tw^o or three seconds and then 
melted a^vay in the twinkling of an eve. 

We shall be forced to estimate this as an oc- 
cult phenomenon until some one shall step for- 



We Speak That We Do Know. 93 

ward and tell us how it can be done by mechan* 
ical devices in those particular surroundings. 

At the close of the seance, after the gas burn- 
ers had been turned on, the circle was dismissed 
without being permitted to draw aside the por- 
tieres and inspect the cabinet ; — another very re- 
grettable circumstance. 

§ 7. On the morning of May 9, 1901, the 
authors were privileged to sit for slate-writing 
with the famous medium, Fred P. Evans, at his 
seance-room in New York City. 

The room was commodious, and well lighted 
by two large windows. The authors sat on the 
west side of a plain kitchen table opposite the 
medium. The table was of the ordinary kitchen 
variety, only devoid of any drawer. 

Mr. Evans took three slates from a pile and 
washed them with saliva, alleging for this two 
reasons : first, that he might not be accused of 
using chemicalized water ; second, because the 
saliva was a good magnetic conductor. 

We inspected each of these slates carefully and 
found them above all suspicion. Thenceforward 
they were not touched by the medium. 

Following medium's directions, we placed two 
of these together (A and B) with little scraps of 
slate-filings between. The third slate (C) was 
placed upon our side of the table an inch or two 
from A and B. Then for a few moments we 
held first A and B and next C between our 
hands, the medium touching our hands each time 



94 We Speak That We Do Know. 

for a few seconds. Next we placed A and B 
upon the table in front of us and laid our hands 
upon the uppermost, — A. 

At Mr. Evans' request we placed our ears upon 
A and heard faint scratchings going on between 
these slates. 

The medium then produced a fourth slate (D) 
which he salivated as before and handed to us 
for inspection. Next he took a piece of white 
chalk and wrote the name " Duff " upon one side 
of slate D and "Allen" upon the other side. 
This he did upon the table without removing the 
slate therefrom. After a few moments the me- 
dium bade us take up the slates. Slate A was 
blank. Upon B, C and D we found writing. B 
contained a message of greeting signed " Spirit- 
Guide John Gray." Upon D were three " mes- 
sages " : (1) a " message " in what appeared to be 
colored chalk-crayons written diagonally in 
twelve lines of the following colors : red, red, 
drab, lavender, red, pink, yellow, purple, light 
gray, red, yellow. It was signed "Dadibah" 
purporting to be "the Spirit-guide of the man 
who is aiding you (Dr. Allen) in Bombay, Cal- 
cutta." (2) A " message " in slate-pencil signed 
"Margaret Allen" to Dr. Allen. (3) One in 
slate-pencil to Mr. Duff signed " Mary and James 
Duff." Upon slate C was a farewell greeting 
from " John Gray " closing the seance. 

It is worthy of note that in the summer of 
1900 Dr. Allen met and formed a pleasant ac- 



We Speak That We Do Know. 95 

quaintance with the Pundit Lalana, who sailed 
for Bombay, India, in September of that year ; 
that Margaret is the name of Dr. Allen's de- 
ceased mother ; and that years ago there lived in 
!N^orthern 'New York a James Duff, great uncle 
of Kev. E. M. Duff. " Mary Duff," however, is 
the name of Kev. E. M. Duff's mother, the only 
relative of that name ; and she at this writing is 
still in the flesh. This fact looks like pretty con- 
clusive proof that the psychographic phenomena 
in this seance can be charged up to telekinesis 
with telepathy. 

We may add that we noticed that the table-top 
consisted of two boards screwed down. The 
medium voluntarily, at the close of the seance 
unscrewed these top boards and showed us a plain 
table-surface beneath. These top boards, he said, 
were especially magnetized and were carried by 
him when he went on tours in order to save the 
transportation of a table ; or the magnetizing of 
new tables in every place visited. 

Whence came the colored crayon lines, seeing 
that no colored chalk was anywhere about; at 
least nowhere near the slate on which the colors 
appeared ? 

Mr. Evans answered that the colors were ab- 
stracted from the carpet on the floor of the room. 
In that case however the substance could not 
have been chalk. Yet a subsequent chemical 
analysis unmistakably revealed the presence of 
calcium. There was lying upon the north end of 



96 We Speak That We Do Know. 

the table a piece of plain white chalk. Could the 
body of the writing upon slate D have been ab- 
stracted from the substance of this chalk, and the 
coloring matter supplied from the carpet dyes ? 
Let him answer who can, 

§ 8. On the evening of May 10, 1901, the 
authors sat with Mrs. Chamberlain, materializing 
medium, in her seance room in Brooklyn. The 
circle consisted of the authors and two ladies. 
The room was a conventional but well-appointed 
back parlor on the first floor. Cabinet was 
simply a bow window recess about ten feet 
from the ground, separated from the rest of 
the room by portieres. This so-called cabinet 
we were allowed to inspect carefully im- 
mediately before and immediately after the 
seance. 

At about 9:30 P. M. the gas-burners were 
turned off and a purple-glass lantern on the wall 
behind the sitters turned on, by the light of which 
all objects in the room were plainly distinguish- 
able. The medium seated herself in front of the 
closed portiere and reonained there in plain view 
of us all as long as the manifestations continued. 
At her request we started a hymn in which she, 
(the medium), joined. Before we had sung one 
verse, the portiere was parted and out walked, 
or rather glided, a white-clad form, — that of a 
woman — who almost immediately dematerial- 
ized before our eyes. She sank down to the 
floor until there remained only a white disc-like 



We Speak That We Bo Know. 97 

cloud which lingered for a second or two and 
melted away. 

Next there materialized outside of the por- 
tieres the form of a little girl, shrouded in white, 
who inquired in a childish voice if any little 
children were present. On being answered in 
the negative, she dematerialized before us in the 
manner described above. 

Two other forms, — those of women, — likewise 
materialized and dematerialized in quick suc- 
cession outside of the cabinet. 

Then the medium retired within the cabinet. 
After a few hymns had been sung, a male voice 
from within announced that conditions were un- 
favorable ^ for further manifestations that night, 
and much to our disappointment closed the 
seance. The gas-burners were turned on, the 
medium came forth, and the cabinet was again 
closely inspected by us with the result that we 
were satisfied of the honesty of the proceedings. 

A friend has suggested that perhaps some con- 
federate let himself in through the windows 
while the portieres were drawn. Possibly ; but 
even so, how could that wily confederate have 
produced materialization and dematerialization 
in front of the cabinet six or seven feet from 
where we were sitting, all objects in the room 
being plainly distinguishable ? W© would draw 
special attention to the fact that out of the four 
materializations which took place, three forms 
^ It was a rainy night closing a rainy day. 



98 We Speak That We Do Know. 

wei'e huilt uj> outside of the cabinet before our 
eyes. 

§ 9. The following are Dr. Allen's notes of a 
second seance whioh he attended, given by the 
same medium, on Sunday afternoon. May 12, 1901. 

" I remained over Sunday in order to see the 
manifestations of this remarkable medium a 
second time. On this occasion I took with me 

a skeptical friend, Mr. D of New York 

City. We arrived at the house, 29^ McDonough 
street, Brooklyn at 3:15 P. M. There were pres- 
ent in the circle about twenty-five people, men 
and women, including one little girl. Before the 
seance began my friend and I inspected the al- 
cove which formed the cabinet ; examining win- 
dow-fastenings, finding them locked, and every- 
thing else beyond suspicion. 

" The seance began at about 3:40 p. m. The 
medium, as at the seance described in the previ- 
ous section, sat just outside the drawn curtain. 
The room was faintly lighted as before by the 
lantern on the wall behind the circle. All ob- 
jects in the room were plainly visible. The 
medium while seated outside the cabinet was 
apparently in the normal state, and at times ad- 
dressed remarks to the circle. 

" In a very few moments forms began to ap- 
pear, white-clad, as at the seance of May 10, 
Of these the most remarkable was that of a little 
girl eight or nine years old, who called herself 
' Carrie.' 



We Speak That We Do Know. 99 

" She parted the curtains and came forth. 
' Carrie ' enquired whether any little girls were 
present ; whereupon the child referred to above 
stepped up to the form, and shook hands and 
held conversation with her for a few moments. 
Then this girl-form retired within the cabinet 
and was seen no more. 

" Several other forms appeared in the same 
way. One of these was that of a good-sized man 
clad in a dark suit and wearing whiskers. He 
gave his name as the cabinet-control, Dr. "Wise. 
He dematerialized before us at the parted 
curtain. 

" After this the medium retired within the 
cabinet and apparently passed into the hypnotic 
or trance state. In a short time thereafter 
several forms, some men, others women, came 
out, conversed with the members of the circle 
who acknowledged them as relatives, some- 
times exchanging kisses with them ; and disap- 
peared between the curtain-folds in plain view of 
the circle. 

" Then the light in the lantern upon the rear 
wall was turned up higher ; and so bright was it 
that I could read my watch at a distance of four- 
teen inches from my eyes. To this I drew my 
friend's attention. 

" In this more distinct light the most remark- 
able manifestation was that of a colored woman 
dressed in white. We could distinguish her 
dark face and dark hands. She wore a white 
LofC. 



100 We Speak That We Do Kiiow. 

turban around her head. She presented herself 
in full figure and talked in a negro dialect. 

" Several other forms appeared, shook hands 
with and sometimes kissed acknowledged friends 
and relatives in the circle. 

" One gentleman in the circle, — a German, — 
went up to the shade of his wife, who stood at 
the parted curtains, kissed her and conversed 
with her in the German language, she responding 
in the same. 

" Dr. Wise the ' cabinet-control ' appeared, 
shook hands with two or three in the circle, and 
dematerialized before the curtain. He sank 
down with such force that he uttered a deep 
sigh as he fell or collapsed to the floor. "We de- 
tected in the collapse a slight noise as if a sheet 
or some light fabric had dropped. 

" While the lantern-light was still bright the 
medium suddenly parted the curtains and exposed 
the interior of the cabinet or alcove to full view. 
— It was perfectly empty, save for the medium. 
— I had however a sort of dissolving view, just 
as the curtain was parted, of the lower drapery 
of a figure, which almost instantly vanished, 
leaving the cabinet untenanted except by the 
medium. A lady sitting next to me in the circle 
immediately asked me in a whisper if I had seen 
a form ; thus verifying my observation. 

" Then this same form invisibly ' controlled ' 
the medium and through her enquired whether 
any one had seen her (the form) as the curtains 



We Speak That We Do Know. 101 

were parted. The lady replied in the affirma- 
tive ; to which the ' control ' responded that the 
lady's vision must have been clairvoyant rather 
than optical. 

" From the moment that my fleeting vision of 
this lower drapery had vanished, I observed by 
the ample light that not only was the cabinet 
empty but the outside window-blinds were 
closed, and everything undisturbed. 

" Once in the course of the manifestations 
which followed the medium walked out into the 
circle apparently under control, shook hands 
with a lady and retired into the cabinet. 

"Then the light in the lantern was turned 
down very low. Many other forms appeared; 
people in the circle going up to the cabinet, 
shaking hands with, and kissing the apparitions. 
Some of these apparitions spoke with strong and 
distinct voices, while others were able only to 
whisper. 

"Among these forms appeared a lady with 
three or four five-pointed stars across her fore- 
head and five down the front. They were all 
luminous. This form spoke to the company. 

" At one time two forms appeared simultane- 
ously ; one at the centre of the parted curtains ; 
the other at the right of the cabinet. The 
former had luminous stars down the front ; the 
other had none. 

" One of the apparitions which manifested had 
eleven of these luminous stars down the front ; 



]02 We Speak That We Do Knoiv. 

others had stars — one or more — over the fore- 
head. 

" An apparition came to a lady in the circle 
and announced himself as the Prophet Hosea. 

" The most remarkable of the closing manifes- 
tations was that of a series of bright lights at 
the top of the curtain resembling balls of fire 
about the size of cherries. Some of these left 
trails of light behind them not unlike the effect 
of chain-lightning. One of these luminous balls 
came out upon the carpet of the room and disap- 
peared within about eighteen inches of my feet. 
A great many of these lights appeared. 

" The voice of ' Dr. Wise ' announced that in 
this manner the Indian spirit ' Bright Lights ' 
was accustomed to manifest himself. 

" This phenomenon concluded the seance. The 
medium then stepped forth from the cabinet; 
whereupon my friend and I entered and in- 
spected everything, finding as before not the 
slightest evidence of anything suspicious. 

" The medium was kind and courteous enough 
to invite me the next time I should visit New 
York to sit with her in the cabinet during the 
seance." 

Both the authors feel deeply indebted to this 
medium, Mrs. Chamberlain, for the courtesy 
which she extended to them, as well as pro- 
foundly appreciative of the frankness and hon- 
est}'" which she manifested from beginning to 
end. 



We Speak That We Do Knoiv. 103 

§ 10. Our diary of personal experience with 
psychic phenomena up to date ends with seances 
held with the well-known materializing medium, 
Mrs. C. M. Sawyer, of Boston. 

(a) Seance at private residence, 188 West 
Huron Street, Buffalo, June 14, 1901. 

Present in the circle about twenty people. 
Koom, an ordinary down-stairs parlor. Cabinet 
stood at south end, a wooden structure of joined 
boards which formed the sides and the ceiling, 
having but one entrance, which faced the circle. 
This structure was scrutinized, pounded and 
sounded within and without and found above 
suspicion. Before the seance began we secured 
the medium as follows : We tied a strip of 
cheese-cloth around her neck so tightly that it 
could not be slipped over her head, and then 
sewed up the knot. She then seated herself 
within the cabinet, her head close to the front 
partition. We passed the loose ends of the 
cheese-cloth through two small holes in the par- 
tition, knotted them together upon the outside 
of the partition and sewed up this knot also. 
We saw that the cabinet was devoid of contents 
save the chair upon which the medium was 
seated. The lights in the room were then turned 
out ; but light was supplied from a purple 
lantern in the northwest corner sufficient to 
make visible all the members of the circle. 

Under these conditions about twenty forms 
materialized. Some of them were men, some 



104 We Speak That We Do Know. 

women, some children. Some walked far out 
into the room. Some dematerialized far from 
the cabinet entrance ; others vanished at the en- 
trance. Some talked with great distinctness ; 
others in hoarse whispers. Some were recog- 
nized, conversed with and kissed as relatives by 
members of the circle. One of these was apparently 
that of Sarah Meith personally known to one of us, 
who had died about three weeks before. Her hus- 
band was present and conversed with her face to 
face. He told us she gave him token of recogni- 
tion known only to himself. Among the forms 
which came out was that of a very tall Indian 
who shook hands with one of us, (Dr. Allen). 
His mantle scintillated with points of light. His 
grasp was fleshly and palpable. The cabinet- 
control materialized and called one of us for- 
ward (Mr. Duff). We grasped his hand. It was 
warm and palpable. He said in clear manly 
tones, " God bless you my friend, I trust we shall 
meet beyond when you take your last journey," 
whereupon he melted away before our eyes. He 
stood, while we interviewed him, plainly before 
us, a man with bearded face and attired in an 
evening suit. 

Little " Maud," another cabinet-control, asked 
for and obtained Dr. Allen's handkerchief. 
Thereupon a tall, graceful, female form glided 
forth, took the handkerchief, and advanced to 
within about two feet of where we were sitting. 
So distinct was she that we could see the hair 



We Speak That We Do Know. 105 

which rested gracefully upon her shoulders. 
She began to stretch the handkerchief until she 
transformed it into a gauzy bridal- veil which ex- 
tended from her shoulders to the knees. She 
then detached the transparent, flimsy veil and 
caused it to contract until it once more became 
the original handkerchief. This she tossed back 
to Dr. Allen and melted away. 

When the lights were turned on we entered 
the cabinet and found the medium seated where 
we had left her, the knots and thread undis- 
turbed. But Mrs. Sawyer, not content with 
these tests, announced, when she had been liber- 
ated, that members of the circle were now 
privileged to sit in the cabinet with her. 

Mr. Duff was the first to be thus favored. He 
sat with his hands resting upon the medium's 
head while her hands rested upon the sitter's 
forearms. Thus any movement on Mrs. Sawyer's 
part could have been detected. While we were 
sitting thus we felt a hand patting us first upon the 
arms, then upon the head. This hand then 
wrote with a pencil upon a tablet which had 
been placed across our knees, detached the paper 
and placed it within the fingers of our right 
hand. It then wrote upon our cuff. After that 
it tossed the tablet oat into the lighted room. 

These were the chief phenomena of that even- 
ing. 

(b) Seance, same place, June 23, 1901. 

Conditions, etc., same as h&iovQ j)ln8 this addi- 



106 We Speak That We Do Know. 

tion. Dr. Allen, at Mrs. Sawyer's request, 
fastened a piece of court-piaster across her 
mouth, thus precludicg any movements of the 
lips. This was done in answer to critics who had 
accused Mrs. Sawyer of producing the voices of 
Maud and Elon, the two controls, by ventrilo- 
quism. Thereupon she seated herself in the cab- 
inet, the light still burning in the room. Almost 
immediately the two familiar voices of " Maud " 
and " Elon," first one, then the other, spoke in 
clear, resonant, diaphragmatic tones, without the 
faintest shade of a muffled effect. After this 
demonstration the court-plaster was removed by 
Dr. Allen. It was dry and adhered so firmly 
that it had to be moistened before it could be re- 
moved. 

The forms on this occasion were for the most 
part indistinct and their voices very faint. How- 
ever, " Sarah Meith" was recognized by her mother- 
in-law, who manifested her emotion with tears 
and sobs. " Maud " materialized very plainly and 
spoke very distinctly. 

One form materialized and dematerialized out 
in the room. A remarkable phenomenon in the 
course of the seance was the levitation of a pail 
of chopped ice which had been placed within the 
cabinet. It was carried by unseen agency around 
the corner of the cabinet and set down with a 
loud thud about six feet northeast of the en- 
trance to the cabinet, very near to where Dr. 
Allen was sitting. 



We Speak That We Do Enow. 101 

The handkerchief-bridal-veil phenomenon was 
repeated but the form was faint as compared 
with its appearance on the evening of the 
14th. 

After the lights had been turned on, and the 
medium released from her cheese-cloth bands, 
she again sat with some of the members of the 
circle. During one of these sittings, a hand 
materialized in full light at the parting of the 
curtains. 

(c) Seance held in the evening of June 28, 
1901, at the above residence and under the same 
rigid test conditions and before an audience of 
about fifteen. 

Early in the evening the form of an Indian 
chief materialized outside of and about six feet 
from the cabinet. He stood by the side of a 
lady, who said he was one of her spirit-guides. 
The lady walked across the room with the Indian 
whom she introduced to Dr. Allen ; the chief and 
the doctor shaking hands. The whole act was 
similar to shaking hands with a living person. 
The chief also spoke a few words in the Indian 
dialect. The form then backed away and melted 
out of sight before reaching the cabinet. 

A lady came and wove the spirit- veil, which 
was about one yard wide and three or four yards 
long. As she held this above her head and 
allowed the veil to fall in folds about her white 
and fine figure, it made a pretty picture. 

Many other forms came out and walked at 



108 We Speak That We Do Know. 

least eight feet from, the cabinet strong and well- 
developed. 

A fine form appeared at the door of the 
cabinet dressed in an evening suit. In a strong, 
well-articulated voice he called " Dr. Allen ! " 
The doctor stepped to the cabinet door, standing 
a little to one side so that those in the room 
could also see. " Dr. Allen, I wish to introduce 
myself to you ; I am Dr. Paul Gibier, late of the 
Pasteur Institute of Kew York City." He shook 
hands, and then grasped Dr. Allen's hand with 
both of his. The grasp was strong, the feeling 
slightly clammy but otherwise that of a perfect 
hand of a living person. " May God bless you," he 
said, " in the good work you are doing ; go on and I 
will assist you all I can to bring these truths be- 
fore the public." 

The voice was strong and manly, the figure 
perfectly human in appearance. After more ex- 
changes of conversation his hands slipped to the 
finger-tips of Dr. Allen's and the next instant he 
sank to the floor, dematerialized, and left Dr. 
Allen looking into the cabinet at a vacant space. 
The curtain was held back without visible hands. 
As he sank to the floor he seemed to go down 
and out with a sort of a sigh. This was a most 
prodigious phenomenon. Think of holding a 
man's hand in a strong grip and talking to him, 
and then beholding him sink at your feet with- 
out leaving a trace behind him ! 

At the first or second seance with Mrs. Sawyer, 



We Speak That We Do Know. 109 

" Dr. Gibier " sent word to Dr. Allen through the 
cabinet-controls that he would try to manifest 
himself to him. He certainly fulfilled his prom- 
ise to such an extent, that Dr. Allen, though in 
active medical practice for more than fifteen 
years, could not say but that he was talking and 
shaking hands with a perfect human being. 

At or before the appearance of "Dr. Gibier," 
Dr. Allen was not thinking of this gentleman. 

Other forms appeared, the friends kissing 
many of them. Before the close of the seance, 
several were invited into the cabinet to sit with 
the medium. While this was going on, a fully 
developed form was seen by the circle in the 
cabinet. 

(d) Seance July 2, 1901. 

Test conditions same as before. The follow- 
ing were the manifestations most worthy of note : 

(1) A woman's form robed in white rushed 
noiselessly out of the cabinet for a distance of seven 
or eight feet, both hands elevated above her 
head ; then gradually glided back to the cabinet 
and disappeared. The form was very distinct 
and strong. 

(2) Another woman's form developed outside 
of the cabinet. She wore a white head-piece. 
This form also was very distinct and strong. 

(3) Another form came out from the cabinet, 
walked about six feet and then simply vanished ; 
not sinking to the floor as many forms here have 
done. 



no We Speak That We Do Know. 

(4) The form of a strong well-developed 
woman came forth, walked to Dr. Allen and 
spoke some words in French. A lady in the cir- 
cle near Dr. Allen arose and conversed with this 
form in French. The form backed away, said 
something further in the French tongue, and re- 
tired within the cabinet. 

(5) A very striking phenomenon then oc- 
curred. A fine, strong figure of a child about 
eleven years old ran from the cabinet to a Mr. 
Eddy who was sitting in the circle. She grasped 
Mr. Eddy's hands exclaiming in a whisper, 
"Papa, papa, papa, oh papa, papa," and then 
drew him to the cabinet saying, " I have much I 
would like to say to you, but there are so many 
here who would like to speak to their friends, so 
I must not be selfish." She then dematerialized. 

Mr. Eddy informed us that she was his daugh- 
ter who had passed out some years before with 
malignant scarlet fever ; and that her last expir- 
ing words were, " Papa, papa, papa, oh papa, 
papa ! " 

(6) The voice of a prattling baby was heard 
as though the little one were creeping along the 
floor, but no form could be seen. 

(T) Two boys about nine and eleven years 
old appeared at the cabinet door. The younger 
disappeared and the mother of the elder boy 
came and talked with him for a short time before 
the little fellow vanished. 

(8) Several members of the circle were per- 



We Speak That We Do Know. Ill 

initted, as at previous seances, to sit with the 
medium in the cabinet. During some of these 
sittings materialized hands appeared outside the 
curtains. 

(9) One lady went into the cabinet, carrying 
with her a small bunch of flowers. While she 
was holding the medium, as we have described 
elsewhere, a hand seized the bunch of flowers, 
held it out before the curtain, and waved it for 
about a minute in full sight of the circle. Then 
a voice, apparently Maud's, said, " Dr. Allen is 
requested to take the flowers." The bunch was 
dropped into the doctor's hand as he stepped to 
the curtain, and his hand was patted several 
times in a friendly manner. 

The night was very warm and the seance was 
shorter than usual. " Maud's " voice could be 
plainly heard joining in the singing at the be- 
ginning of the seance. 

(e) Seance, July 5, 1901. 

Circle of about ten people. 

The question of ventriloquism had again been 
raised concerning the voices which spoke from 
the cabinet. It was now suggested that not the 
medium but the conductress, whose place was 
more or less near the cabinet, did the ventrilo- 
quizing. Accordingly Dr. Allen proposed an- 
other " gagging " test which was eagerly accepted 
by Mrs. Sawyer and her assistants. It was this : 
Dr. Allen fastened surgeon's adhesive-plaster of 
his own over Mrs. Sawyer's mouth in two 



112 We Speak That We Do Know. 

strips; one on each side of the face reaching 
from the eyes across mouth and under chin, 
crossing — one over the other — at the mouth. 
Another strip two inches wide reaching from 
ear to ear and covering mouth and first strips. 
The doctor also marked the skin in several places 
at borders of the strips with pencil to insure de- 
tection in the remote event that the strips might 
be removed in the cabinet. In addition to this 
he tied a handkerchief across the medium's 
mouth. A personal friend of Dr. Allen held 
both lips of the conductress firmly with his 
fingers. The gentleman who is accustomed to 
lead the singing was dismissed from the room. 

Under these test conditions the voices of 
" Elon " and " Maud " spoke as clearly and per- 
fectly as ever from the cabinet. Thus the gen- 
uineness of independent phonation was demon- 
strated. 

There were no further demonstrations that 
evening, owing, as " Elon " announced, to the 
electrical storm which was in progress outside. 
No fees were taken from the attendants. ^ 

(f) Seance July 7, 1901. Present among 
others, the Rev. Arthur B. Rudd, Episcopal 
clergyman, of Boston, Mass. Circle composed 
of about twelve people. Atmospheric condi- 

* Likewise at two public seances given in the winter of 1901 
by the Campbell brothers at the Spiritual Temple in Buffalo, 
whereat no manifestations occurred, the admission fees were 
returned to the audience as they passed out. 



We Speak That We Do Know. 113 

tions : dry and cool. Test conditions, same as 
before ; Mr. Rudd securing the medium. 

The first form was that of a woman who 
parted the curtains, disappeared, then reappeared 
and walked out into the room for about four feet. 

An Indian next appeared, walked out about 
five or six feet from the cabinet, waved both 
hands over his head, two or three times, backed 
towards the cabinet and vanished outside. His 
dress was covered with bright spangles of light. 

The next form walked around the room with 
a lady in the circle, conversing with her. She 
went as far as eight feet from the cabinet ; then 
backed towards the curtains and seemed to melt 
away in the air. 

Then there proceeded from the side of the 
cabinet an unearthly noise, as of a wheel churn- 
ing and grinding. This continued for some time. 
We all wondered what it could be, and enquired 
of the " controls " as to the cause. " Maudie " 
answered that she did not understand it herself. 
It was apparently a female spirit in a state of 
great perturbation. Then a beautiful, strong 
female form rushed from the cabinet to a lady 
in the circle, seized her and exclaimed excitedly, 
"Where is papa? Where is papa? Where is 
papa?" The lady whom she had seized ex- 
claimed, " Why she is dripping wet ! Her hands 
and garments are all wet as if she just came out 
of the water ! " The form disappeared within 
the cabinet and several ladies in the circle went 



114 We Speak That We Do Enow. 

to the curtains to try to bring her back. In a 
few moments she reappeared in the same state 
of frenzy, passing from one member of the circle 
to another exclaiming, " Where is papa ? Where 
is papa?" All the ladies who touched her re- 
marked upon her dripping garments. Once more 
she disappeared within the cabinet, only to re- 
appear again. 

Dr. Allen was then invited to step forward 
and see her. She was apparently a beautiful 
girl of seventeen or eighteen years old. Long 
dark brown hair hung loose down below her 
shoulders. Dr. Allen took both of her hands in 
his and tried to pacify her. Passing his hands 
up along her arms, he found that they were per- 
fectly natural, only wet. He also found that 
her garments were full of water; so moist 
that when she left him and he returned to his 
seat, he could feel the moisture still upon his 
hands. She persisted in the enquiry, " Where is 
papa ? " despite all efforts to soothe her. Later 
the cabinet-control informed us that her name 
was Grandin. 

The next form was that of an elderly lady who 
enquired for " Francis " — Mrs. Francis stepped 
up and recognized the form as that of her de- 
parted grandmother. The two conversed to- 
gether for some time. 

A form who called herself Sarah appeared and 
conversed with a friend in the circle. The baby 
also manifested. 



We Speak That We Do Know. 115 

A strong female form, appeared giving the 
name of Alice Sully. Her mother stepped 
forward, conversed with her and kissed 
her. After this the form coughed for some 
time, thus indicating, as we were informed, 
that her death had been caused by lung 
trouble. 

A form that looked like a Spaniard next ap. 
peared. He was dressed in a negligee style ; — 
trousers and shirt. Finally we made out that 
he wanted a guitar. We had hired a guitar for 
that evening, knowing that stringed instruments 
are often made use of by the " invisibles " at 
seances. This guitar he accordingly placed 
against the cabinet ; and immediately there 
issued therefrom a female form of the Latin 
type and took up the instrument. She held her 
left arm out on a level with her shoulder in a line 
with her side. The right hand held the guitar 
straight from her body at arm's length. While 
in this position the instrument was played upon 
by some unseen hand or force. The form was 
covered with light spangles. From the end of the 
guitar a bright phosphorescent light radiated in 
rays. The form stepped forward and thrust the 
guitar rapidly towards Mr. Eudd and Dr. Allen, 
who, thinking that they were going to get hit, 
dodged accordingly. The instrument was with- 
drawn as rapidly as it was thrust forward. When 
the form put the instrument down, the phos- 
phorescent light above mentioned disappeared. 



116 We Speak That We Do Know. 

The lady of the Latin type then vanished within 
the cabinet. 

One form partly developed, appeared, vanished, 
and reappeared several times at the top of the 
cabinet. 

A man's form appeared and talked with a lady 
in the circle. While this manifestation was in 
progress, an occult voice sang a few lines of a 
college fraternity song. This was recognized 
by the E-ev. Mr. Eudd, who enquired if it was 
his old classmate " Jay." Three raps responded 
— the code for " yes." 

After the full light was turned on, Mr. Eudd 
and others inspected the cabinet and found the 
medium tied as she had been left. 

Several ladies and gentlemen sat in the cabinet 
with the medium at different times ; during 
which sittings materialized hands appeared out- 
side of the curtains. 

One gentleman who sat with the medium, said 
that he saw a form within the cabinet. Others 
were touched and patted by invisible hands 
while they were within. 

(g) Seance, July 9, 1901. 

Present, circle of eleven people. Medium 
under test-conditions. 

Though this seance was very short, the ma- 
terializations were for the most part clear and 
strong. Some of the forms spoke with great 
distinctness ; particularly that of a graceful 
woman who appeared far out to the east side of 



We Speak That We Do Know. Ill 

the cabinet. At that time the light in the 
seance-lantern had been turned to its full strength 
and all objects in the room were clearly visible. 
This form enquired in a natural tone of voice, 
" Does any one in the circle speak French ? " A 
gentleman replied ; and exchanged with this 
form a few sentences in the French language. 
The form then disappeared near the entrance of 
the cabinet. 

This was the most striking materialization of 
the evening. During the cabinet-sittings ma- 
terialized hands appeared outside of the curtains 
several times. While Mr. DuJff was sitting in the 
cabinet with the medium, holding her as de- 
scribed a few pages back, an unseen but palpable 
man's hand, after patting the sitter on hands, 
arms, and head, suddenly gave him the grip of 
the Sigma Phi fraternity, of which Mr. Duflf is a 
member. " Is this a Sig. brother ? " Mr. Duff 
enquired. Three eagerly given pats by the hand 
upon Mr. Duff's hand responded. "A Hobart 
Sig.?" Three pats. "Is it A. C. C. Jr?" 
(The name was spoken in full.) Eager pats an- 
swered this, which were fairly showered down 
upon head, cheeks, arms and hands. The hand 
then wrote a message with the pencil upon the 
tablet which rested upon Mr. Duff's lap; and 
then materialized outside of the curtain. The 
message was clearly written and one of greeting, 

signed " A ." (We omit full name for 

personal reasons.) 



118 We Speak That We Do Know. 

(h) Seance, July 18, 1901. 

Circle composed of about twelve people, 
several of whom were physicians and business 
men of Buffalo. 

On this occasion medium was tied with tape 

brought by Dr. McK , who saw that 

medium's wrists as well as neck were tied. 
Wrists were allowed free movement of about ten 
inches. Everything carefully examined before- 
hand. Person of medium searched by committee 
of ladies. 

Female form, perfect and distinct, appears and 
goes through motions of wrapping shawl around 
her. 

Female form comes out several feet and 
whispers the name of " Clara." Retires to cur- 
tains and disappears. 

Graceful female form, white-clad, comes 
forth, goes to niche in the room formed by 
chimney, picks up a parasol and shawl there, 
and hands them to their owner, a lady who 
sits in the circle next to one of us (Mr. Duff). 
Apparition speaks a few words and retires to 
cabinet. 

Seance ended with usual sittings in cabinet 
with medium, during which hands materialized 
outside of curtains. 

(i) Seance, July 19, 1901. 

Test-conditions same as at previous seances 
prior to that of July 18. 

In full blaze of lamplight a feminine arm, clad 



We Speak That We Do Know. 119 

in white, gauzy material protruded from cabinet- 
curtains three times. 

Under subdued light of seance-lantern the fol- 
lowing manifestations occurred : 

Woman's form, very distinct, appeared. Wore 
white dress and veil, black crepe on right arm. 
Pointed to north and waved arm and veil in 
that direction three times. The director re- 
marked that this symbolized a death in that 
direction, of which we would hear soon. 

Woman's form gave name of " May." Desired 
to see Mrs. Holmes. Quickly vanished. 

" Maudie " materialized. Wore luminous crown 
upon her head. Its lights comparable to moon- 
light. 

Streak of light material or fabric seen above 
and at top of cabinet. This falls down loosely 
along the opening of cabinet-curtain ; then sud- 
denly assumes the form of a woman. 

Two full-sized female forms appear together at 
the curtain. One gives the name of "Jessie," 
and converses with a lady in the circle. Both 
forms then disappear. 

Woman's form, strong and perfect, appears 
outside of cabinet, several feet from curtains. 
Converses with a lady in the circle and retires. 

Woman's form appears having a luminous 
crescent upon chest. Gives name of "May 
Thurber " and asks for " Mother." 

Maudie's voice asks Dr. Allen for his handker- 
chief. Dr. A. complies with request, and as he 



120 We Speak That We Do Know. 

drops handkerchief into cabinet, " Maudie " pats 
and shakes his hand. 

The veil-weaving phenomenon follows. A 
lady in circle is permitted to hold a fold of the 
woven veil. The form of the spirit-weaver, 
strong and distinct, walks backward. Dr. Allen 
extends his hand, and the form drops an end of 
the veil into extended hand. The fabric has the 
feel of cheese-cloth. The spirit-weaver then con- 
tracts veil into the original handkerchief, hands 
latter to Dr. Allen, bows gracefully and re- 
tires. 

Female form appears having the same lumi- 
nous crescent as above described. This apparition 
was first seen at left of cabinet about two feet 
out. Walks up to Dr. Allen and says "May." 
" Are you ? " asked Dr. A., naming a re- 
lative. Three raps responded upon marble- 
topped table at which Dr. Allen is sitting. " I 
will tell Alexander," Dr. A. remarks. A shower 
of raps respond. " May " then touches Dr. A.'s 
hand, backs up to cabinet curtains and vanishes. 

A startling report as of a pistol-shot is heard. 
Maudie announces that a test will now be given. 
Presently a young woman's form appears, dressed 
in loose white garments. She walks up to Dr. 
Allen, takes both his hands and says "May." 
Dr. A. asks if this is Miss " A. C." The appari- 
tion replies, " May Fosburgh. He did not kill 
me. He did not do it. He did not do it." As 
she said these words she retreated, still holding 



We Speak That We Do Know. 121 

Dr. A.'s hands, to the curtain where she vanished. 
The feel of her hands was natural except for a 
slight coolness. 

A male form, giving name of " Rogers " ap- 
pears and talks with a lady in the circle. 

Elon's manly form suddenly steps out about five 
feet into the room, talks and offers to shake hands 
with Dr. Allen. The latter avails himself of 
Elon's offer. The grip is so strong as to be pos- 
itively painful. 

Maudie's voice prophesies a death amongst the 
circle. 

The baby phenomenon follows — voice audible, 
as if out in room, but form invisible. A lady in 
the circle reports that she succeeded in touching 
the baby's hand. 

Maudie appears at curtain-folds and talks. 

Out on the floor another form appears and 
quickly vanishes. 

A spot of light appears on the floor of the room 
and rapidly grows into the perfect form of a 
man, who stands still for a brief space, backs up 
to curtain and vanishes. 

Female apparition asks for a certain lady in 
circle. The two converse together for some time. 

A fine Oriental male form appears ; and Dr. 
Allen is invited to step forward and see him. 
He bows gracefully and gave his name as 
Amarona. He wore two stars on his breast. 

At the request of Elon the medium is untied. 
— Physical tests are also promised. 



122 We Speak That We Do Know. 

Elon's voice says : " Dr. Allen, will you please 
tear off a strip from the cheese-cloth ? " 

Dr. Allen thereupon tears off a strip from the 
cloth with which the medium had been tied. 
Its dimensions were seventy-one inches in length 
and four and one-fourth in width. This he drops 
upon the floor inside the cabinet. Presently Dr. 
A. is invited to step inside and see what had oc- 
curred. He found both hands of the medium 
tied together at the wrists. The right hand was 
crossed over the left. The strip had been passed 
around the medium's waist and tied in several 
knots both at wrists and behind her back. One 
end had been tied to the main post at the back 
of her chair in three knots — and these knots hack 
of the medium's arm. 

Elon's voice then said, " Doctor, put your coat 
in the cabinet." 

Dr. Allen complied with this request ; where- 
upon Elon asked, " What do you want us to do 
with your coat ? " 

" Put it on the medium," we answered. 

" All right ; come and see," Elon re- 
sponded. 

On inspection, the medium's right arm was 
found to be within and through the right sleeve 
of the coat ; while the left sleeve was over her 
shoulder. 

" l^ow get a chair and put it into the cabinet," 
Elon commanded. 

Dr. Allen placed the back of a Vienna chair 



We Speak That We Do Know. 123 

within cabinet and held the legs of this chair on 
the outside. 

" What do you want us to do with this chair ? " 
asked Elon. 

"Why, I don't know," Dr. Allen replied. 
" Do with it what you wish." 

In an instant the chair was sharply jerked, 
and Elon said, "Come in and see the medium 
now ! " 

Dr. Allen entered and found the medium^s 
right arm, still tied, and with the coat-sleeve, 
still on, looped through the opening in the hack of 
the chair. 

Thus we were privileged to witness the 
phenomenon reported by Professor ZoUner in his 
"Transcendental Physics," described as "The 
passage of solids through solids." 

All this time we (Dr. Allen) were the only in- 
carnate person, aside from the medium, in or 
near the cabinet. 

Elon's voice requested us to untie the medium. 
Much picking was required before we could loose 
the knots, — a far longer time than the few 
seconds spent in accomplishing the phenomenon. 
Medium's wrists were bound so tightly that 
marks of a deep ridge were left upon the skin. 

This phenomenon closed the seance. 

(j) Seance, July 23, 1901. 

This senace opened about 8 : 30 p. m., twelve 
persons forming the circle. 

The first phenomenon was the picking of the 



124 We Speak That We Do Know. 

guitar strings in accompaniment to singing. 
The guitar stood about four feet from cabinet. 

Maudie appears and talks to the doctor and 
others. Was asked where her crown was, to 
which she replied that she did not think of it. 
Soon she reappeared wearing the crown and 
said : " They have just put it on me ! " 

A form appears and disappears at the cabinet- 
curtain. Elon now shows himself at the door, 
speaks and disappears. 

Another form walks out from cabinet and then 
returns to the curtains and disappears. 

A woman's form appears, takes up the guitar 
and holds it at arm's length, while an invisible 
force plays a tune. The form then holds the 
hand of a lady in the circle with her left hand, 
while with her right she holds the guitar, while 
it is played upon by an invisible force. 

Next the members of the circle all join hands 
except the reporter. A fine strong figure comes 
from the cabinet, walks to the table, j)icks up a 
book-slate, puts it down, takes up two pencils, 
opens the book-slate and draws upon it the portrait 
of a man. This she does with both hands in a few 
moments. She then puts down pencil, holds 
slate in left hand and inscribes a Sanskrit [?] mes- 
sage which at this present writing stands un- 
translated. "When the message is finished she 
steps up to Dr. Allen who has been watching her 
every motion at a distance of not over eighteen 
inches, puts the slate down beside his arm, takes 



We Speak That We Do Know. 125 

his hand, raises arm and elbow and slips slate 
under his arm. Then she puts the slate-pencil 
down along side of his arm, gives his hand a 
squeeze, followed by several pats and a final 
press, which signifies that slate-pencil and mes- 
sages are for the writer. She then walks to the 
centre of the room, raises her right arm and hand 
into the air, and saying " guit-tar," vanishes near 
the cabinet door. Her hand felt cool. Her 
dress was of a gray color, and upon her head she 
wore a sort of shaker-bonnet. 

A distinct female form appears and exclaims 
" Jessie ! " Whereupon a lady in the circle ad- 
vances and converses with her. 

A man's form materializes, calls " Mother ! " 
and gives his name as " Bert." A lady steps for- 
ward from the circle, kisses the form and holds 
conversation with it for a few moments. " Bert " 
asks the lady to tell the doctor (meaning Dr. 
Allen) that he ("Bert") remembers when the 
doctor brought to him and his wife their first 
baby, remarking, " Here is a nugget for you." 

These, as a matter of fact, were our exact 
words. The event referred to by " Bert " took 
place about seven years ago. 

Cabinet sittings followed with the usual mani- 
festations. 

(k) Seance, July 30, 1901. 

At 8:30 p. M, the medium was tied in the usual 
way, the knots being sewed. "We ourselves, to 
satisfy the enquiries of skeptics, entered cabinet 



126 We Speak That We Do Know. 

and carefully inspected the floor. We found it 
to be a part of the carpet of the room; and 
though we pried and pulled at it with our pocket 
knife we failed to detect the slightest looseness. 

The manifestations were as follows : 

"White-clad female form appears at the cur- 
tains. 

White arm waves at upper part of curtains. 

Maudie's voice speaks. 

Maudie materializes very distinctly at curtains. 
We note her appearance as that of a little girl 
about twelve years of age. She converses with 
several members of the circle from where she 
stands. 

Distinct female form walks out from cabinet 
and retires. Comes out a second time as far as 
centre of room ; and walks around with a lady 
of the circle. Gives her name as "Margaret." 
Retires to cabinet. 

Elon's voice comments upon Sanskrit [?] mes- 
sage given at seance July 23. 

Form of woman, apparently French or Span- 
ish, suddenly appears two feet to our left and 
about five feet from entrance of cabinet. Her 
garments are of a dark red, dotted with luminous 
spangles. She walks around marble-topped stand 
at which we are sitting taking notes, and extends 
both hands to us. We respond and take both 
her hands. She draws us to the entrance of 
the cabinet, and asks, "Does monsieur speak 
French?" We reply in negative. With that 



We Speak That We Do Know. 127 

she releases our hands ; and bows herself appar- 
ently into the floor at cabinet-entrance. 

Tall female form walks far out into the room, 
gives the name of " Stevens," returns to curtains 
and disappears. 

Distinct female form appears at curtains. 
Speaks the name "Abigail." Relative comes 
forward from circle and converses with her. 

Hand materializes at curtains ; immediately 
after a distinct female form walks down within 
a foot of the front row and talks with a member 
of the circle. There is a luminous oval upon her 
throat. Retires to curtains. 

Female form very distinct comes out of cab- 
inet, walks to chimney-corner and picks up guitar 
which has been left there. She, like the appari- 
tion described just now, wears dark red gar- 
ments dotted with luminous spangles. Encir- 
cling her brow is a turban with a luminous 
spot at forehead. Her features were very dis- 
tinct, and were swarthy, like an Italian's or 
gypsy's. Holding guitar upon right arm and at 
arm's length, she advanced to us and extended 
her left hand. This we took. She drew us out 
to middle of room. Then an invisible force 
plays a Moody and Sankey hymn-tune upon 
guitar, the strings of which are on the tipper 
side, removed from reach of her hands. "When 
the tune is ended we prepare ourselves to dodge 
a possible blow, remembering the Rev. A. B. 
Rudd's experience. The form, however, leans 



128 We Speak That We Do Know. 

guitar against cabinet, releases our hand, ex- 
claims, " Let justice reign ! " and vanishes at 
entrance. 

The veil-weaving phenomenon follows. 

2^wo female forms appear together at curtains. 
One vanishes and the other speaks the name 
" Margharetta ! " She walks far out into the 
room and back to curtains where she vanishes. 
Her garments were covered with luminous 
spangles. 

Maudie is heard singing. 

Form of " Bertie " materializes and converses 
with his mother. Th&j exchange kisses. 

Man's form appears at curtain. Gentleman in 
circle recognizes him as his departed brother. 
Converses with him. 

Yoice from cabinet calls for guitar. Con- 
ductor places instrument inside cabinet. Guitar 
is thrummed within, and at same time a streak of 
light appears at top of cabinet and in front. 

Elon's voice announces that portrait on slate 
given to Dr. Allen at seance July 23 was not 
that of the person whose name was signed to the 
message. 

Loud and startling report as of pistol-shot 
within cabinet. Female form appears and comes 
out into the room. Form clad in white, quite 
slender, face swathed in bandages. Calls for Dr. 
Allen. In latter's absence Mr. Duff is called up 
by conductor. The form standing out in the 
room addresses Mr. Duff thus : " Tell Dr. Allen 



We Speak That We Do Know. 129 

that Anna came. I was shot in the face. He 
will know." Thereupon she vanishes at cur- 
tains.^ 

Seance was concluded by usual cabinet sittings. 

(1) Seance, August 2, 1901. 

Test-conditions same as before. Prior to open- 
ing of seance we stood upon a chair and ex- 
amined the top of the cabinet, finding nothing 
but the matched boards which we saw when 
looking within the cabinet from below. 

On this occasion some of the forms were very 
faint and evanescent and others very distinct 
and lasting. 

We would remark that certain of the evanes- 
cent forms, both on this occasion and others, 
evince the genuineness of the work as strikingly 
as do the more distinct and lasting manifesta- 
tions. For example, at one time two forms ap- 
peared together, a distinct one which stood at 
the entrance and a faint one which appeared 
simultaneously about three feet out and to the 
right as we faced the cabinet. The latter seemed 
to melt away where it stood. 

The most notable manifestations were these : 

The materialization of Maudie on four occa- 
sions, each time speaking. 

The French woman, whose appearance was 

■Dr. Allen identifies this form as a personation of the 

late nee Anna C who a few years ago was a trained 

nurse. She afterwards married tinhappily and was shot in the 
face and killed by her husband in Pennsylvania. 



130 We Speak That We Do Know. 

the same as at the seance of July 28 ; who, as 
before, grasped us by both hands. This time in- 
stead of bowing into the jloor, she melted into a 
long narrow streak af light at cabinet-entrance, 
and vanished. 

A female form wearing a crown of light mate- 
rialized outside. 

The manifestation of Anna C , with face 

bandaged, who grasped Dr. Allen's hands and 
repeated in a voice of intense agony, " He shot 
me ! He shot me ! " We noted no resemblance 
in form and build between this apparition and 
the Anna C of our acquaintance. 

The baby manifestation. 

The veil-weaving phenomenon; on this occa- 
sion not so distinct as usual. 

The woman who held the guitar, etc., as dis- 
tinct as at last seance. 

The full form of a man clad in a dark suit ; 
height nearly six feet, who stood for a moment 
in entrance. 

Cabinet-sittings as usual. 



§ 11. This concludes our series of seances 
with Mrs. Sawyer. We would add that in look- 
ing over that lady's printed testimonials, our at- 
tention was attracted by some prints of 2^^oto- 
graphs of spirit-forms taken at her seances in 
1889 and published in the Rochester (ISTew York) 
Union and Advertiser. They were vouched 



We Speak That We Do Knoio. 131 

for by the printed name of A. W. Moore of the 
staff of the journal just named. Accordingly we 
took the liberty to write to Mr. Moore for veri- 
fication, and we here acknowledge our indebted- 
ness to that gentleman for the courtesy of the 
following prompt reply : 

"EocHESTEE, N. Y., Aug. 10, 1901. 

" Thomas G. Allen, Esq., 31. D., 
"My deae Sie : 

"Your letter to Union and Advertiser has been 
handed to me, and I would say that I witnessed the photograph- 
ing of materialized forms at a seance held by Mrs. Carrie Saw- 
yer in 1889. Great precautions were taken to prevent the 
possibility of fraud, and I have always been quite positive in 
my own mind of the absolute genuineness of the manifestations. 
Mrs, Sawyer gave a great many seances at that time which 
were attended by the best people in Eochester, including 
judges, doctors, lawyers, journalists and clergymen. 

' ' I reported some of my experiences at the time for the Pro- 
gressive Thinker of Chicago, and a gentleman in New York had 
several thousand copies of the article published in pamphlet 
form. 

" You are at liberty to use my testimony. 
"Yours truly, 

"A. W. MOOEE. 

" P. S. I was formerly art editor on the Union and Advertiser 
staff, but for the past two years have been assistant secretary 
Chamber of Commerce. M." 

Among these photographs above vouched for 
by Mr. Moore the following particularly drew our 
attention : 

First, a series of four cuts, the first of which 
represented a spot of light upon the floor ; the 
second, a small upright cloud a foot or two high ; 



132 We Speak That We Do Know. 

the third, the cloud developed to the height of a 
human being ; the fourth, its final development 
into a distinct and perfect human form. 

Here, be it noted, is an automatic confirmation 
of the correctness of our description of like de- 
velopments at some of the seances described in 
this chapter. If w^e were " hypnotized " at the 
time, as some of our friends have suggested, it 
seems quite certain that the camera at least v^as 
in the " normal state ! " 

The other photograph which we especially 
noted represented the medium and Mr. Moore 
shaking hands with each other across the open 
entrance of the cabinet ; while just within the 
entrance, back of them, stood two " spirit " forms. 

§ 12. We conclude by tendering our thanks 
to Mrs. Sawyer for the kindness which she ac- 
corded to us throughout her seances just de- 
scribed ; and for her uniform willingness to sub- 
mit to every test that we proposed. She had 
given her assent to allowing us to attempt a 
photographic seance ; but was obliged to leave 
Buffalo before we could get ready for it. She 
assured us that she always stands ready to sub- 
mit to any reasonable tests at any time which 
any scientific investigators or psychical research- 
ers may see fit to arrange with her ; and we 
would venture to say that here is presented a 
rare opportunity to the American Branch of the 
S. P. R. for an investigation of this class of 
psychic phenomena. 



CHAPTER ly. 

SPIEIT IN THE EEALM OF LIFE. 

Showing that the human soul is a corporeal organism in which 
Spirit has attained to the highest form of symmetry in the 
creative process ; and treating of the conditions under 
which Psychic Action at a Distance takes place in teleki- 
nesis, mesmerism, telepathy and clairvoyance. 

§ 1. In this chapter^ we shall endeavor to 
find the conditions under which spirit or the 
superphysical manifests itself in the life-realm; 
both in the psycho-physical human organism and 
in the biologic series below man. 

The conclusion to which we shall be brought 
is this : 

That in every phase and form of life the fun- 
damental principle is superphysical or spiritual. 
In other words, so far as life is concerned, it is 
SPIRIT that quickeneth, matter (by itself) prof- 
iteth nothing. 

§ 2. Starting with the human organism, we 
find ourselves confronted by superphysical mani- 
festations at every turn. The seeker after the 

^ Those readers who are not especially interested in psychic 
theory are respectfully warned that chapters iv and v may 
prove tiresome. If they should feel inclined to continue this 
book further, they are advised to skip to chapter vi which 
summarizes the contents of Part II. 
133 



134 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

occult has no need of leaving his own personal 
premises to find that which he seeks. Let him 
but move his hand, let him but speak a word, let 
him, in short, do anything which calls forth 
nervo-muscular action and he stands in the pres- 
ence of the superphysical. 

Such a truism is this that its significance is 
overlooked. The sight of an Aladdin rubbing a 
lamp and producing a geni would strike us dumb 
with wonder. But force transformed from an 
impalpable, spaceless idea into vibrations of pal- 
pable nerve-matter elicits no astonishment. We 
call this a normal occurrence because we are 
used to it. 

The materialist tries to explain the phenom- 
enon by saying that mental activity is a " proj)- 
erty " of matter ; i. e., of matter which is vitally 
organized. He thereby explains nothing, but 
begs the whole question at issue. 

What, we ask, is the determining point of dif- 
ference between matter which is alive and matter 
which is not alive ? We challenge the material- 
ist to show by chemical analysis the faintest 
shadow of difference between two organic cells, 
one of which is living and the other "dead." 
Before our question he is silent ; in the face of 
our challenge he is helpless. 

The simplest form of life, which is the 
hiojplasm,., is a bioplasm, i. e., a Ufe-ioYvn, 
{Buxi-^TzXdrriia) not by reason of the matter of 
which it is composed, but by reason of an unseen, 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 135 

Tion-m.ShteYi2l something which animates it, namely, 
a spiritual or psychic principle. 

Scientists have now abandoned as chimerical 
that attempt to create life by chemical synthesis 
known as "spontaneous generation." Biolo- 
gists are forced to acknowledge the truth of those 
words uttered nearly two thousand years ago : 
" It is Spirit that quickeneth." 

The phenomenon, then, of nervo-muscular 
action voluntarily brought about is essentially 
spiritual in that spirit, not matter, is the efficient 
cause. Concretely, the efficient cause is a voli- 
tion. In every volition there are three elements ; 
flrst^ the desire to execute a certain action ; 
second^ the knowledge of how to do it ; (possibly 
this knowledge is subconscious;) — thirds the 
ability or power to do it; in other words, the 
possession of the requisite force. Before the 
volition is executed this force is lying latent in 
the " motor-idea," — to employ a technical term. 
In the execution this latent force is liberated and 
projected upon matter. 

Thus we are brought face to face with one of 
the first principles of psychology ; — that ideas 
are forces / that the spiritual contains latent 
energy. 

Spiritual energy is psychic force. 

% 3. Until within late years psychology has 
been in a confused and indefinite state. Two 
rival schools have been struggling for supremacy 
— the empirical, physiological or materialistic 



136 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

school, and the idealistic wing. The funda- 
mental error of the former we have already 
pointed out ; namely, its futile attempt to explain 
the psychical in terms of the material. The 
idealists, on the other hand, have lost the 
scientific key to psychology by too much meta- 
physical abstraction. They have lost sight of 
concrete facts and things through abstract gen- 
eralization and imposing terms. They talk 
learnedly about " consciousness," " sensitivity," 
"percepts," "concepts," "memory," "emotion," 
" volition," etc., under the vague designation of 
" faculties " ; but fail to say anything about the 
psychic %i7iits or elements and the adjustments 
thereof out of which all those " faculties " have 
been evolved and composed. 

Just now idealism is talking learnedly about 
another abstraction which it labels variously 
" subjective," " subconscious," or " unconscious 
mind," or "subliminal self," as though the 
psychic modifications and adjustments which 
these imposing labels represent were a separate 
and independent " entity." 

This vagueness is an attempt on the part of 
the old idealists to meet certain newly discovered 
facts which have revolutionized psychology — the 
facts which fall under the general head of 
" Psychic Action at a Distance " ; — telepathy, 
clairvoyance, telekinesis, etc., etc. 

But these facts, like all other psychic facts, 
refuse to be explained by the old method of 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 137 

word-coining and abstraction-forming, just as they 
also refuse to fit into any materialistic scheme. 

The new psychology, to be scientific, must cut 
loose both from materialism and the old ideal- 
ism, and begin at the very bottom-round of the 
psychic ladder, which is also the biologic ladder. 
It must Ji7hd the primordial U7iit of intelligence, 
which is also the primordial unit of life. It must 
recognize that the psychical as well as the phys- 
ical structure of life has been a growing process ; 
an evolution ; and that any adequate description 
of psychic action must be along the line of both 
the historical and the analytical methods. 

§ 4. The unit of life is the bioplasm. Its 
two elements are, first, the matter of which it is 
composed ; second, the psychic principle or force 
which animates it. It is the basic element in all 
living tissue. All physical organisms are com- 
posed of millions of bioplasms arranged in va- 
rious groups, adjustments or modifications. Such 
groups, etc., constitute the different functions of 
the organism. Separate a bioplasm from the 
organism of which it is a part, and it dies, i. <s., 
becomes so much lifeless matter. The primordial 
animal, however, that tnoneron known as the 
protammha, is a single bioplasm ; a simple unicel- 
lular structure. This is the primordial unit of 
life in its independent manifestation. 

There was a time, a long age, when this pos- 
sibly represented all the life that there was on 
this planet. Out of this simple moneron all the 



138 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

psycho-physical organisms of the earth up to man 
have been evolved " according to certain laws, 
by means of resident forces." The main law is 
that of heredity ; the resident forces, as we shall 
see presently, are 'psychic forces. 

But first let us consider the moneron, this uni- 
cellular organism. Outwardly it is a simple 
piece of organic material. But its habits, its 
actions, its movements, manifest the attributes 
of intelligence} In essence then the moneron's 
life is ])syGhic. It is not only \h.Q physiological 
unit, it is also \he psychic unit. 

This moneron is the biological ancestor of hu- 
manity. The series of more complex forms of 
life which were developed from this life-unit are 
the result of resident forces within the organism 
forming modifications of structure in response to 
changes in the environment. This is an explana- 
tion which explains, as the natural selection 
theory does not. ]^o series of lucky accidents, 
as the natural selection theory would have it, can 
ever account for inheritable modifications of 
structure. Professor Huxley himself in one of 
his later lectures acknowledged that accident or 
fortuity is inadequate to explain biologic evolu- 
tion. He admits that we must look to impulses 
from within the organism as the scientific expla- 
nation. This is tantamount to confessing that it 



1 This Dr. Hudson has shown in detaU in his "Divine Pedi- 
gree of Man." 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 139 

has been by the action of psychic forces that 
biologic evolution has proceeded. 

In the development of life, from the lower to 
the higher, complexity of nerve-substance, — 
ganglia, — and growth of intelligence have gone 
on at equal pace. In this development, however, 
be it remembered, the resident psychic forces re- 
sponding to environmental changes have been 
the efficient causes', the resulting ganglionic 
complexities have been the created effects. 
Psychic forces from beginning to end have 
been the master-builders of the material struc- 
tures. 

This fundamental truth is illustrated, as Dr. 
A. T. Schofield ("Unconscious Mind," p. 320) 
points out, in the case of the reproduction of off- 
spring after their kind. That author first quotes 
Charles Kingsley as follows : 

" There is no physical cause discovered why 
ova should develop after their kind. To talk of 
a law impressed on matter is to use mere words. 
How can a law be impressed on matter ? As a 
seal on wax ? Or as the polar arrangement of 
parts in a solid ? If so, it is discernible by the 
microscope, and then it would not be a law but 
a phenomenon. I am indeed inclined to regard 
the development of an ovum according to kind 
as the result of a strictly immaterial and spiri- 
tual agency.'''' 

Upon this Dr. Schofield says in commentary : 
" Though the writer of the above was no psy- 



140 Spirit in the Bealm of Life. 

chologist he was a scientific man and an acute 
thinker, and we believe that now there are com- 
paratively few that will deny the psychic causes 
at work." 

The author then cites the following observa- 
tion from Herbert Spencer, adding, " Surely no 
stronger evidence could be given in favor of 
Kingsley's belief " : 

" It is proved that no germ, animal or vegeta- 
ble, contains the slightest rudiment, trace or in- 
dication of the future organism — since the micro- 
scope has shown that the first process set up in 
every fertilized germ is a process of repeated 
spontaneous fissure ending in a production of a 
mass of cells, not one of which exhibits any spe- 
cial charaotery 

Thus the history of evolution may be said to 
be progressive spirit-materialisation. Biologic 
evolution is a drama in which spirit is building 
up successive tabernacles ; ever seeking and ever 
finding in each new achievement of its worh a 
progressively higher form of symmetry. Indeed 
this quest by spirit for progressively higher 
forms of symmetry is seen, as we shall show in 
our next chapter, as the law by which it works 
throughout the whole realm of nature. The play 
of forces in all the kingdoms of nature, whether 
of forces mechanical, chemical or psj^chical, is a 
quest after progressively higher forms of sym- 
metry. From the star-dust to the human soul it 
is the spirit's way of working. 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 141 

As Dr. R. Osgood Mason puts it, (" Hypnotism 
and Suggestion," p. 9) : 

" It (Professor Tyndall's statement as to mat- 
ter containing the potency of every form and 
quality of life) presents the initial force in evolu- 
tion as psychic force, permeating every particle 
of matter and every form of organism — securing 
higher and higher expression through more and 
more complex, and more nearly perfect organ- 
isms, until finally by this same psychic power 
the human organism is evolved and regulated." 

§ 5. We come now to the human organism. 
"We have seen what its physiological constitu- 
tion is : an organization made up of those bio- 
plastic units which we have been considering ; 
these units being arranged in complex modifica- 
tions, adjustments, etc., forming the various 
organs, functions, and so on, of one organism. 
We have also seen that behind the material part 
of each bioplasm there is an animating ^s^/cA^c 
substance displaying itself as a unit of intelli- 
gence and force. It is apparent therefore that 
the physiological machinery of man is run, so to 
speak, by psychic intelligences and forces which 
work together in a unity of organization. This 
working is automatic ; i. e., it is independent of 
that higher complexity of modifications and ar- 
rangements known as conscioiisness. 

This fact has constituted a pitfall into which 
both materialists and old-school idealists have 
come to grief. The materialist calls this auto- 



142 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

matic working of adjusted psychic forces by the 
name of reflex action and flatters himself that he 
has thereby got rid of any intelligent or spiritual 
element involved in the process. But learned 
names and phrases cannot obliterate y«c?^s. The 
stubborn fact remains that each separate cell is a 
unit of intelligence ; and that each plexus repre- 
sents a higher form of symmetry to which these 
units of intelligence have attained. Cell-memory, 
and cell-intelligence are now recognized and ad- 
mitted by our most eminent physiologists. 

The old-school idealist generalizres this auto- 
matic working of psychic forces under the col- 
lective label "subjective" or "subconscious 
mind," which he sets up as a " separate entity " 
as distinguished from the so-called " objective 
mind" of normal consciousness. But the new 
psychology resolves this nebulous " entity " into 
its component clusters and units, even as the tele- 
scope has resolved celestial nebul£e into separate 
suns and systems. 

Both schools are in error. The new psy- 
chology finds that each individual soul and body 
epitomizes the whole course of biologic evolution 
in its successive attainments of higher forms of 
symmetry. It finds that the soul is an organism 
of the various complexities of psychic adjust- 
ments and modifications which have been evolved 
from the primordial unit of intelligence. It finds 
that consciousness itself is merely one — the high- 
est one — of those adjustments. It finds that 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 143 

every so-called "faculty," — sensitivity, percep- 
tion, memory, conception, volition, emotion, etc., 
etc., is nothing more than a certain complex ar- 
rangement or modification of psychic units, that 
is to say of energizing intelligences} 

§ 6. We have noted that in each unit there is 
the outward and visible element, which is ma- 
terial ; and the inward and spiritual life-jprin- 
ciple, which is intelligence ^^ws force. We have 
also noted that the biologic building-process 
represents a progressive action of spirit-force 
upon organic matter. We shall presently see 

^ We might otherwise express the growth of psycho-physical 
life by saying that it follows a law of subconscious Assimilation, 
which may be formulated as follows: 

(1) Intelligence or the spiritual principle seeks to assimi- 
late, i. e., to make a part of its own organism, all suggestions 
that are presented to it. 

(2) The assimilation of any given suggestion takes place 
when all competing suggestions before the intelligence have 
been inhibited or suppressed. 

Observation 1. Among organisms below man marked changes 
in the environment stand as suggestions or stimuli which the 
spiritual principle in the organism assimilates in its reactions 
thereto ; namely, by producing structural and concomitant 
psychic modifications. 

Observation 2. "We shall see in chapter v that environmental 
changes themselves are determined, in their turn, by an intel- 
ligent principle ; i. e. , by spirit in the realm of matter. 

Observation 3. In the human organism assimilable sugges- 
tions come either through peripheral stimuli or by formal sug- 
gestions from other minds or by auto-suggestions. The assim- 
ilation of a suggestion in man de^jends upon the absence of 
opposition among the fixed ideas of his consciousness. Hyp- 
nosis is a method of suppressing the opposition of fixed ideas. 



144 Spirit in the Bealm of Life. 

that psychic phenomena include the action of 
spirit-force upon, spirit-force. But here we have 
to do with the action of spirit-force upon matter. 
To get at any kind of an explanation of this phe- 
nomenon, we are compelled to look for some 
medium of a texture finer than the coarse grades 
of matter of which ganglia are composed. It is 
conceded that the media through which all so- 
called material force travels are ethereal in their 
texture. In the case of electricity, for example, 
it is supposed that the medium is a vibrating 
ethereal fluid y which may conveniently be desig- 
nated as the electrical ether. It is an error to 
suppose that the media of electricity are the 
various material conductors, as they are called, 
through which electrical communications, etc., 
are made possible. Electricity is in its essence a 
force or mode of force. Its real medium is a 
vibrating ethereal fluid ; — the electrical ether, — 
which fluid has a " preference " for certain ma- 
terial substances called " conductors." 

This distinction (which is a real one) between 
the m^edia and the conductors of forces is an im- 
portant one to be kept in mind. The media are 
the ethereal fluids ; and these are the true ve- 
hicles of the forces. In fact they may be said to 
be the organisms of the forces. The conductors 
are the material substances for which the media 
or the ethereal fluids have a "preference," — to 
use figurative language. 

Psychic force acts upon 7natter, as nervo-mus- 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 145 

cular or motor-action proves. Certain organized 
forms of matter, namely, nervous matter or 
ganglia, form its conductor. But this is not its 
medium. The latter must necessarily be an 
ethereal fluid. Accordingly, behind the material 
part of each bioplasm, and each complex modi- 
fication of bioplasms, there is an ethereal fluid 
which is the medium through which the spiritual 
acts upon and governs its temporary conductor, 
the physiological. In other words, evet^y jpart 
of the physiological structure has its ethereal 
counterpart. These ethereal counterparts together 
form a complete corporeal organism — the soul 
— which is the true and abiding medium or taber- 
nacle of human spirit. 

This is that " Building of God, that house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens," which 
the apostle speaks of as surviving "when the 
earthly house of this tabernacle " — the physical 
body — shall be " dissolved " (2 Cor. 5 : 1). This is 
that " spiritual body " which the same apostle 
speaks of (in 1 Cor. 15 : 44) as existing with the 
natural body. 

Thus psychological analysis shows that man 
as he exists on this planet is a trichotomy, 
consisting of body., (the physical organism) soul.^ 
(the ethereal organism) and spirit., — the intelli- 
gent, animating principle. 

§ 7. But the grounds for the existence of this 
ethereal counterpart, replica or double of the 
physical organism, which is the soul, are wider 



146 Spirit in the Reahn of Life. 

than mere inductive reasoning from known psy- 
chic data. 

The existence of the etheric double is a matter 
of exact demonstration. 

§ 8. First of all an au7'a has been seen as a 
luminous radiance emanating from the person. 
We have this on the testimony of Reichenbach's 
experiments with clairvoyants. Dr. E.. O. Mason 
also in the book already referred to cites the 
following more modern case : 

" The peculiar perceptive power of Master 
Leo Brett of South Braintree, Mass., is of in- 
terest in this connection. He is a remarkably 
bright, healthy and active lad, ten years of age 
(1901) and the son of a reputable physician, 
Dr. Frank A. Brett. He is easily put into the 
hypnotic condition by his father, and when in 
that condition he is able to see the tissues, bones 
and all the internal organs of the body and de- 
scribe their condition. He has examined organs, 
bones, etc., by means of the X-rays, but he scorns 
that method, declaring that he sees much clearer 
himself. The correctness of his perceptions has 
been demonstrated in numerous instances, not 
only by patients themselves, but hj post-mortem 
examinations. The pomi of special interest is, 
that he sees an atmosphere of pale-green light 
flashing in e^^ery direction about the patient for 
a distance of four or five feet. This he sees 
around all persons " (Italics ours.) (p. 255, foot- 
note). 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 147 

§ 9. Secondly, it is a well-known fact — there 
are many cases to prove it — that persons who 
have undergone amputation of limbs and other 
members have continued to feel sensations as 
though the amputated members were still an 
integral part of their bodily organism. The fol- 
lowing is a striking instance of this kind: — A 
gentleman while traveling in the White Moun- 
tains met with an accident which made it nec- 
essary for him to undergo amputation of his 
forearm. After the operation the gentleman 
complained of persistent pain in his absent mem- 
ber saying that it felt as if the hand were full 
of sawdust and a nail sticking in the finger. 
During an occult sitting at which the patient 
was not present, in answer to an inquiry con- 
cerning the gentleman's condition, information 
was given by independent writing that the arm 
was packed in sawdust, and a nail partly driven 
through the first finger. Unknown to the patient 
who was distant a hundred miles at the time, 
two friends visited the scene of the accident and 
had the arm exhumed, finding it in the condition 
described. It was washed with warm water and 
the nail taken out. At the same moment, as was 
ascertained by comparing notes later, the arm- 
less man exclaimed, "They are pouring warm 
water on my hand and taking the nail out. I 
think my arm will get well." ^ 

From this it would appear that as long as an 

1 The Hidden Way Across the Threshold, pp. 109, 110. 



148 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

amputated member is preserved from decompo- 
sition, there is maintained hetween it and the 
parent organism a subtle ethereal connection. 

§ 10. But instances are numerous where the 
etheric body or double has been seen by several 
witnesses at once by normal perception, as well 
as by single witnesses of trained technical ex- 
perience. 

§ 11. For example,^ in the spring of 1892 
Dr. George T. Stewart, superintendent of Belle- 
vue Hospital, as he entered the door of "Ward C 
of Ward Island Hospital one morning at ten 
o'clock, saw rising from above the screen, behind 
which lay a bed, a faint bluish form, the dim 
outline of a human body. It floated across the 
room, passed out of an opened window and dis- 
appeared. The physician immediately called the 
attendant, one John McBride, and said : " The 
man in that bed is dead." McBride replied, "No, 
sir, I've just left him." Said Dr. Stewart, " He 
is dead, go and see." McBride entered the room, 
went to the bed, returned and said, "You're 
right, sir. He's dead." 

Dr. Stewart had been a witness of the flight of 
that patienf s psychic organism or soul. 

" I afterwards mentioned the matter to the 

Jesuit Father B the chaplain of the Ward's 

Island institution," says Dr. Stewart in the Jour- 
nal interview ; " and he said that my account of 

* New York Journal, March 31, 1901, p. 67. Interview with 
Dr. Stewart. 



Spirit in the Realm, of Life. 149 

the phenomenon agreed in all respects with sev- 
eral similar cases which had been reported by 
the clergy." 

We personally have had a similar case reported 
to us by reputable persons. 

§ 12. One of the most striking cases of the 
psychic organism's visualization is that recorded 
by the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, in his book 
" Footfalls on the Boundary of Another "World," ^ 
and noticed also by Adolph D'Assier in his 
"Posthumous Humanity."^ It is that of Mile. 
Emilie Sagee, a French lady, from Dijon. In the 
year 1845 she was employed as a teacher in a 
young ladies' seminary of high repute near "Wol- 
mar in Livonia. The pupils were principally 
daughters of the Livonian nobility. 

" A few weeks after Mile. Sagee's arrival 
singular reports began to circulate among the 
pupils " — to the effect that Mile. Sagee was often 
seen in two places at the same time. These re- 
ports were at first set down by the teachers as 
nonsense. But one day Mile. Sagee while illus- 
trating something upon a blackboard before a 
class of thirteen pupils suddenly duplicated her- 
self. The pupils "saw two Mile. Sagees, the 
one by the side of the other. They were exactly 
alike ; and they made the same gestures, only 
that the real person held a bit of chalk in her 
hand, and did actually write, while the double 
had no chalk, and only imitated the motion." 

1 P. 348 et seq. « P. 62 et aeq. 



150 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

As time went on similar phenomena of the 
double's manifestation became frequent. The 
most remarkable was this : The young ladies 
were all seated at a long table in a certain room 
engaged in needlework or similar occupations. 
From where they sat they could readily see what 
passed in the garden just outside. " While en- 
gaged in their work they had noticed Mile. 
Sagee there, not far from the house, gathering- 
flowers, of which she was very fond. At the 
head of the table, seated in an armchair . . . 
sat another teacher, in charge of the pupils. 
After a time this lady had occasion to leave the 
room, and the armchair was left vacant. It re- 
mained so, however, for a short time onl^r; for 
of a sudden there appeared seated in it the figure 
of Mile. Sagee. The young ladies immediately 
looked into the garden, aQid there still she was, 
engaged as before ; only they remarked that she 
moved very slowly and languidly, as a drowsy 
person might." The " double " in the armchair 
was touched by some of the more daring pupils 
and manifested a slight resistance as though 
made of gauzy material. It was also found to 
be transparent. All this was witnessed by every 
one of the forty-two pupils. 

The result of this and other involuntary pro- 
jections of the double led to Mile. Sagee's dis- 
missal with good character. 

For the same cause she was dismissed from 
nineteen schools successively. 



Spirit in the Bealm of Life. 151 

Mr. Owen concludes by saying : " The insti- 
tution of lieuwelcke (the scene of these mani- 
festations) still exists, (1860) having gradually 
recovered its standing after Mile. Sagee left it ; 
and corroborative evidence can readily be ob- 
tained by addressing its directors " (p. 355). 

Mr. Owen's informant was Mile, de Gulden- 
stubbe, daughter of a baron, and a pupil at the 
school during these manifestations. 

§ 13. The following is another " double " case 
personally investigated by the Hon. R. D. Owen,^ 
his informant being a Captain J. S. Clarke of the 
schooner "Julia Hallock" in which vessel the 
case in question occurred while Captain Clarke 
was in command. 

One day about noon while the ship was off 
the Newfoundland Banks en route from Liver- 
pool to St. John's, JN'ew Brunswick, the first 
mate, Eobert Bruce, entered the captain's cabin 
to record an observation of the sun which he had 
just taken. Captain Clarke was with him. 
Bruce, intent on his calculations, did not note 
the captain's departure from the cabin. At the 
conclusion of his figuring he said, " I make our 
latitude and longitude so and so. Can that be 
right ? How is yours ? " This was addressed, 
as he supposed, to the captain who was sitting, 
as Bruce thought, at his desk busy writing on 
his slate. Receiving no reply, Bruce looked 

^ "Footfalls "—etc., p. 333 et seq. 



152 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

more closely and perceived a total stranger sit- 
ting at the captain's desk. The stranger was 
looking at Bruce with a fixed gaze and in grave 
silence. The mate thereupon rushed panic- 
stricken to the deck and reported the incident 
to the captain. The latter accompanied the mate 
to the cabin and found it empty. Upon the 
slate, however, they found the message written 
" Steer to the nor'west." The ship was searched 
from stem to stern for a possible stowaway, but 
in vain. Then the captain, acting upon the 
mate's earnest advice, put the ship around to the 
northwest. About three o'clock the lookout re- 
ported an iceberg nearly ahead, and shortly after 
what he thought was a vessel of some kind close 
to it. It proved to be a vessel from Quebec 
bound for Liverpool. She had become entangled 
and firmly frozen in the ice. On board was a 
crew and a number of passengers. Their condi- 
tion had for some days been desperate. Among 
the rescued passengers, Bruce, to his consterna- 
tion recognized the identical man who a few hours 
since had sat staring at him in the captaiii's 
caMn. 

An examination brought out the fact that this 
man just before noon had fallen into a deep 
sleep ; that on awakening he had told the cap- 
tain of the distressed vessel that rescue was near 
at hand. Tie could however remember no dream. 
When taken aboard the " Julia Hallock " this 
man declared that everything on board looked 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 153 

strangely familiar, yet he was positive he had 
never seen the vessel before. Captain Clarke, 
after duly apologizing to the stranger, handed him 
the slate upon which the writing had appeared, 
— the reverse side only being shown to him, — 
and requested him to write upon it " Steer to the 
nor'west." The man complied. The handwri- 
ting was found to he identical with the original. 

"I asked Captain Clarke," writes Mr. Owen 
(p. 341) " if he knew Bruce well and what sort of 
a man he was." " As truthful and straightfor- 
ward a man," he replied, " as ever I met in all 
my life. We were as intimate as brothers ; and 
two men can't be together, shut up for seventeen 
months in the same ship, without getting to 
know whether they can trust one another's word 
or not." 

§ 14. Still another case is that of St. Francis 
Xavier, to which reference is made of Adolph 
D'Assier in his " Posthumous Humanity " (p. 183 
et seq.). The facts are that during a tempest at 
sea he in his proper person was praying and en- 
couraging the crew of the ship in which he had 
embarked, while in his double he was steering 
the life-boat of the companion ship towards that 
in which his proper person was a passenger. 

Cases of the " double " or psychic organism 
seen by witnesses might be multiplied. "We have 
cited a few of the best attested ones. 

We may say that materialized spirit-forms, of 
which we speak elsewhere, afford further proof 



154 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

of the soul's corporeal organization and its capa- 
bility of being visualized. 

So much for the consideration of the psychic 
organism as it is revealed by evolution, by psy- 
chological analysis and by cases of sense-per- 
ception. 

§ 15. We pass next to the explanation of that 
phenomenon called ^psychic action at a dis- 
tance. 

This is of two classes : the action of psychic 
force upon matter, and the action of psychic 
force upon psychic force. 

We have already considered one phase of the 
first named class : psychic force as it acts upon 
the bodily organism in voluntary muscular 
action. But now our interest centres upon the 
action of psychic force upon matter at a com- 
parative distance from the bodily organism — the 
phenomenon called telehinesis^ — the movement 
of ponderable objects without physical contact. 

In all the telekinetic phenomena, of well- 
authenticated record, the objects moved or levi- 
tated have been comparatively near to {i. e., in 
the presence of) the psychic or medium. 

When the agency is that of an incarnate being, 
the only reasonable, and we think, the only pos- 
sible explanation is that a fluidic aura proceeds 
from the agent's etheric organism and magne- 
tizes, so to speak, all objects within a certain 
radius of his person. This aura forms the me- 
dium through which intelligence and psychic 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 155 

force operate upon the object to be affected, 
which object becomes for the time a sort of 
" conductor." 

There is evidence for believing that all persons 
radiate this aura, but those people called "psy- 
chics " or " mediums," by reason of a control over 
their organization, radiate it to a marked degree. 

It often happens that '' physical " mediums are 
more or less exhausted after their manifestations. 
Evidently a certain portion of the etheric fluid 
which normally maintains the nervous system is 
drawn off therefrom into the radiating aura. 
This would make it possible for some psychics to 
perceive that power or force has gone forth from 
them, even as Christ perceived on a certain 
occasion (St. Luke 8 : 46). 

The emanating aura of which we have spoken 
is popularly and somewhat loosely called " per- 
sonal magnetism," or " mesmeric force." "When 
we come to speak of the therapeutic works of 
Christ we shall refer to it qe psychic force. 

It is, as we have observed, an etheric fluid, the 
proper medium of psychic force, which acts upon 
material objects making them its temporary 
"conductors," or which acts upon and tempor- 
arily controls the etheric fluid of other soul- 
organisms. In the latter case it is nothing more 
or less than that which is commonly called 
7nesmeris7n. 

§ 16. Before we speak further of this, however, 
we must note a wonderful fact pertaining to the 



166 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

emanation of aura upon objects, for which there 
seems to be abundant evidence. It is this : a 
material object which has once been made a 
" conductor " of a person's etheric fluid seems to 
remain connected for an indefinite period with 
that person's soul-organism, as though there were 
a subtle etheric " trail " of connection.^ A cer- 
tain class of psychic sensitives touching or taking 
such objects are brought into rappori with the 
personalities whose psychic ether is connected 
with the objects. These sensitives are affected 
somewhat analogously to people who come in 
contact with the end of a " live-wire " and are 
thus connected with the central dynamo. 
Through this psychic connection their soul- 
organisms seem to vibrate in harmony with 
those of the former owners of the objects 
touched ; so that they are able to describe the 
appearance, character, etc., of the latter, even 
though they have never seen them. This phase 
of psychic sensitivity is known as psychometry. 
(See Professor Denton's book, " The Souls of 
Things.") 

§ IT. When the etheric fluid of one person 
enters into, and, to a greater or lesser degree, 
controls that of another person, we have the 
phenomenon of 7)ies')nerism. Such control is 

^ Du Potete in his Introduction to the Study of Animal 
Magnetism (London, 1838) pp. 214, 215 and 216, says that fire 
does not destroy this aura as the ashes have been found to re- 
tain it. See ' ' Posthumous Humanity, ' ' footnote, page 1 98. 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 157 

usually brought about by manual contact or 
" passes " on the part of a person known in such 
cases as the "operator." We shall later on 
(Chapter i of Part III) refer to the experimental 
demonstration of this power. The mesmeric in- 
fusion of psychic force from operator to subject 
may or may not produce hypnotic sleep in the 
latter, according to the desire or will with which 
the operator charges his emanating force. Mes- 
merism is simply an infusion of etheric fluid 
from one soul-organism into another ; the degree 
of control depending chiefly upon the psychic 
power of the operator, and in part upon the will- 
ingness of the subject. 

§ 18. Hypnotism brings us into a somewhat 
different and yet closely allied field. It is a 
grave error into which " suggestionists " have 
fallen to suppose that the hypnotic operator, 
even though he employs neither contact nor 
passes, does not therefore infuse some of his 
etheric fluid into the subject. 

True it is that hypnosis may be induced by 
auto-suggestion / in which case of course the sub- 
ject hypnotizes himself. The Nancy method of 
hypnotic induction, by means of revolving mir- 
rors, is auto-suggestion. Here the subject is 
made to hypnotize himself. He comes into rap- 
port with the operator through the fact that be- 
fore he goes to sleep he Relieves he will even- 
tually pass under the operator'^s control. The 
subsequent rapport., in short, is a part of the 



158 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

subject's auto-suggestion. When once raijport 
is established, no matter how, psychic force 
emanates from operator to subject ; its degree 
being determined by the operator's psychic 
power. 

Dr. Bernheim's definition of hypnosis as in- 
creased suggestibility seems to us very inadequate. 
Of course hypnosis is increased suggestibility ; 
but how ? What has happened ? The efiicient 
cause of hypnosis is called " suggestion." What 
is the 7;>■?2/c^^c character of suggestion ? It is 
an intelligence or i&Qa^plus a psychic force. The 
force grows in strength as the rival and compe- 
ting forces in the soul gradually become quiescent 
by being abstracted from the subject's attention. 
When the abstraction is complete, the subject is 
in hypnosis. That modification or stratum of 
psychic forces known as " waking consciousness " 
now no longer interposes obstacles in the way 
of the suggestion of ^Xee^ plus obedience. Sleep 
and obedience now become the dominating 
psychic force and take control, according to the 
measure of their strength, over those modifications 
of the psychic units which " run " the machinery 
of the sympathetic system. 

The " suggestionists," as we shall see furth^ 
in chapter i of Part III, neglect a therapeutic 
factor of great value when they rely wholly 
upon auto-suggestion and leave out the mesmeric 
method. The most that a psychic force in the 
form of an auto-suggestion can do is to bring 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 159 

about a certain readjustment of the psychic 
forces within one's own soul-organism ; or as Dr. 
Tuckey puts it, effects a 7iervoiis dynamo-genesis. 
Auto-suggestion can never put new and fresh 
force ah extra into the organism. This is pre- 
cisely what the mesmeric method can do and 
does in the hands of an operator of sufficient 
psychic development. 

The auto-suggestive method, we may observe, 
may or may not be hypnotic' i. e., formal 
hypnosis is not always necessary in order to enable 
the psychic force represented by an auto-suggestion 
to take therapeutic effect. In some persons, per- 
haps about twenty per cent., the " personal equa- 
tion " of psychic forces is such that a little con- 
centration upon the content of an auto-sugges- 
tion suppresses all opposition in that stratum of 
psychic forces called " consciousness " ; and the 
psychic force in the auto-suggestion takes ther- 
apeutic effect ; while enough of the conscious- 
ness-forces are operating to keep the subject 
awake. 

This fact is the key to many of the so-called 
Christian Science cures. It is probable however 
thaft many Christian Science healers do exert, 
consciously or unconsciously, (according as they 
are dishonest or honest) a mesmeric influence; 
that is, by fixation of gaze or mental concentra- 
tion they infuse their etheric aura into the soul- 
organism of the patient. 

§ 19. We come now to consider those phases 



160 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

of psychic action at a distance known as telepathy 
and clairvoyance. Here a new order of phenom- 
ena confronts us. Telepathic and clairvoyant 
phenomena, including hypnosis at a distance, 
show a strange disregard of space-conditions. 
Telepathy may be said to laugh at space. 
Quicker than the flight of light messages and im- 
pressions fly from spirit to spirit (whether be- 
tween incarnates or between discarnates and in- 
carnates) traversing distances measured by the 
breadth of oceans and continents. The trans- 
mitter in many cases knows not the whereabouts 
of the recipient. But the message reaches the 
latter unerringly. So also distant scenes and 
even future events will image themselves before 
the mind's eye of the clairvoyant. Space, and 
even in some cases, time do not count. 

Let us note well the fact that in telepathy and 
clairvoyance spirit and psychic force do not enter 
into relation with matter, as they do in telekinesis 
or " physical " phenomena. In the phenomena 
with which we are now dealing spirit is con- 
cerned only with spirit, and psychic force only 
with psychic force. But the question may be 
asked : Is there no medium in cases of telepathy 
through which psychic force must be transmitted 
from mind to mind? "We answer in advance, 
Yes. 

What then is the nature of this medium ? Can 
it be an ether f We are constrained to reply, 
No ; for this reason : If mental messages are 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 161 

carried along the vibrations of a material ether, 
they must needs be carried in all spatial directions ; 
for if etheric vibrations are thus set going, they 
must be set going in all directions. If this be 
the case, there is no reason why every psychio 
sensitive in this and all other worlds should not 
sense the vibrations and receive the transmitted 
message. But as a matter of fact only that per- 
son for whom the message is intended receives 
it, or one in the immediate vicinity in sympathy.^ 

We have found that in our experiments 
thought-transference to others than the one in- 
tended can be prevented, and secrecy can be 
maintained by the will of the person sending the 
message. This comes under the law of sublim- 
inal self-preservation. 

In telepathy we are dealing with nothing ma- 
terial. We are in the realm of pure spirit. 
The medium of transmission which confronts us 
here is a purely spiritual medium ; one in which 
distance and absence, past and future are obliter- 
ated ; one in which all that there is is the eternal 
here and now. We are in the realm of the abso- 
lute, the Divine Mind; the source of all con- 
ditions and relations. Within this medium the 
spirit that seeks another spirit finds it. Within 
this medium there come to spiritual perception 
such distant scenes and such knowledge of future 

' Or, again, the message might be transferred from the re- 
cipient to another person through the process described in 
chapter ii, as ' ' Telepathic a Trois. ' ' 



162 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

events as the Absolute Spirit reveals. "No 
prophecy ever came by the will of man." 

And here we may ask those who contend for 
a material ether as the medium in telepathy and 
clairvoyance : How can a material ether vibrate 
with events, forces, etc., which are yet in thefu- 
ture^ and are at present non-existent ? Space 
and time are inseparable conditions of matter.^ 

^ If the hypothesis of a material etheric medium is inade- 
quate to explain prevision or prophecy, it is equally inadequate 
to account for clairvoyant knowledge of the past; — the "Astral 
Light ' ' theory of theosophy to the contrary notwithstanding. 
The ' ' Astral Light " is a poetical term for the theory that all 
events are registered somewhere out in the luminif erous ether. 
In some way the psychic's own aura is supposed to " \abrate in 
harmony" with the corresponding etheric vibrations which 
register the perceived events out in the interstellar immensity. 
There these events are supposed to be photographed in the aura 
of the psychic or seer. The difficulties which beset this theory 
are many. Among them is the fact that such comparatively 
feeble vibrations as events are almost sure to be converted into 
other forms of vibrations by counter-forces. Even the light 
emitted by suns, as is now generally admitted, gets lost eventu- 
ally, i. e., converted into other forms of energy. Again, to 
suppose that one's personal aiura, whose radiation is compara- 
tively limited, could be stretched out into interstellar space is 
wildly absurd. 

Much simpler is the hypothesis which supposes that events 
are stored up as Icnowledge within the spaceless and timeless 
medium of Absolute Spirit with whom the psychic, who seeks 
knowledge of the past, comes en rapport, and thus obtains that 
for which he seeks. 

A word in this connection with reference to the X-ray. 
Here we have simply a physical adjunct to optical vision which 
enables the eye by means of the ultra-violet vibrations to see 
for a limited distance through objects which are otherwise 



Spirit in the Reahn of Life. 163 

" Again," writes Dr. R. O. Mason in the work 
just now cited, " vibrations through all mediums 
with which we are acquainted are liable to be 
turned aside or obstructed, but we know of no 
substance which constitutes a barrier to thought 
transference, and we can hardly conceive of such 
an obstruction. It would seem then that, if the 
vibratory theory is to stand as an explanation of 
the method of thought-transference, a medium 
different from any we are at present acquainted 
with must be hypothecated " (p. 2Y4). 

When the seer of Patmos clairvoyantly saw 
things present and things to come, he described 
conditions in these words : "I was in the Spirit." ^ 
Is not this the most scientific formula he could 
have uttered ? 

§ 20. We have before us now the constitution 
of the human soul and the main conditions under 
which its higher manifestations are effected. 

We have seen that the soul is a corporeal 
organism of psychic forces and intelligences; 
that in its visualized form it is the etheric dupli- 
cate of the physical body. We have seen that 
as it acts, under the direction of spirit, upon mat- 
ter it does so through its own fluidic aura or 

opaque, i. e., opaque to the vibrations of the other spectral rays 
from red to violet inclusive. 

We feel that the ether has been made to carry too many 
burdens by those who have of recent years been speculating in 
the siiperphysical department of psychology. 

1 Eev. 1 : 10. 



164 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

ether, and that as the soul's mind, which is spirit, 
acts upon another spirit, (telepathy) or sees into 
distance or futurity (clairvoyance) it does so by 
coming into rapport with the Universal Spirit. 

§ 21. Perhaps we have not sufficiently empha- 
sized the fact that mental passivity, varying all 
the way from waking abstraction to deep hyp- 
nosis or trance, is found by most psychics to be 
favorable, if not indispensable, to the control of 
their own aura, or to coming en rapport with 
the universal medium of spirit. 

We are aware that Dr. Hudson in his " Law of 
Psychic Phenomena " makes passivity an indis- 
pensable condition ; and calls it " the ascendency 
of the subjective mind " whose supposed " facul- 
ties " and " powers " then proceed to do their 
work. 

Aside from all questions pertaining to any 
" subjective entity " with a stock of " faculties " 
and " powers," we may say that in many of the 
cases which we have seen and in those of which 
we have read not the slightest shadow of even 
" waking passivity " has been apparent. For ex- 
ample, Mrs. Chamberlain in the materializing 
phenomena which we described in chapter iii, 
§ 8, sat in front of the cabinet, joined in the sing- 
ing, and occasionally addressed a remark to the 
members of the circle. And yet four distinct 
forms materialized. Also the Campbell brothers 
in the private seances of Feb. 7, and Kov. 15, 
1900, were as Avide awake all the time as were 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 165 

the sitters. If there was any " mental passivity " 
in these cases, it was of the same order as that 
which pertains to any normal work; just as 
much and no more as the " mental passivity " of 
the carpenter or bricklayer intent upon his job ; 
or of the clergyman, lawyer or public speaker 
intent upon the composition of sermon, plea or 
oration, as the case may be. 

These are the observed fads. It is in order 
for the dogmatist, of course, to say that the 
" passivity " which he finds necessary to sup- 
port his preconceived theory 7nust have been 
there. 

However, we must freely acknowledge that 
all psychics do recognize and employ the trance 
state as a condition most favorable^ but not in- 
dispensable, to that control which produces the 
most marked phenomena. 

The reason, we think, is clearly apparent and 
has been well expressed by Shakespeare in the 
oft -quoted saying, 

"Conscience makes cowards of us all.'* 

The great dramatist was here referring not 
to the " moral faculty " but to conscious- 
ness. 

In every work, both normal and " super- 
normal," the less consciousness there is, the more 
accurate and smooth will the work be. In other 
words, work becomes efficient in proportion as it 
is automatic. You will never, for example, learn 



166 Spirit in the Realm of Life. 

to balance yourself upon a bicycle until you have 
suppressed those adverse suggestions which con- 
sciousness is liable to obtrude upon you, — to 
your undoing as a wheelman. 

Valuable as consciousness is in its own place, 
the fact remains that our proficiency in any art 
is the work of arrangements and modifications of 
psychic forces helow those of the consciousness- 
strata. Until the latter are sufficiently inhibited, 
we can never hecome artists in anything. Their 
complete inhibition may be perfectly accom- 
plished in the wahing state, as the performance 
of a Paderewski bears witness. But their in- 
hibition is absolutely assured in the hypnotic or 
trance state. When, therefore, the psychic or 
medium induces the trance state, he is simply 
making any assurance which he may possess, 
doitbly sure. 

§ 22. There is one other condition which 
must be noted ; and it pertains to psychic action 
upon matter. This also, like passivity, is perhaps 
not an indisjpensable condition, but it is one 
which is recognized by all psychics and mediums 
as greatly favoring success. We refer to that 
preference shown by practical psychics which 
has raised such a hue and cry on the part of 
skeptics ignorant of all the laws and con- 
ditions of psychic phenomena; — the preference, 
namely for darTi,ness or subdued light during 
seances. 

Of course this preference is ascribed by the 



Spirit in the Eealm of Life. 167 

prejudiced to an occasion for perpetrating fraud. 
No doubt many unscrupulous jugglers palming 
themselves off as psychics have availed themselves 
of darkness for working their tricks. But as we 
have seen in the preceding chapter, tests can be 
arranged whereby trickery can be detected in 
subdued-light seances, as surely as in the full 
blaze of light. 

But why cabinets and subdued light ? Is there 
any legitimate reason for them ? 

First, be it said, some mediums do not use 
cabinets. They merely suspend a shawl or piece 
of drapery, as does Mrs. Chamberlain, walling 
off a corner or alcove of the room. Others even 
sit out in the room and hang a curtain or its 
equivalent across the lower part of a doorway 
which opens into a darkened room. The board- 
partition cabinet, however, is the best arrange- 
ment both for excluding light and possible con- 
federates. This as we have seen is Mrs. Sawyer's 
plan. 

Howsoever the cabinet be constructed, the 
most important point is this : the trance state is 
best induced when the medium is concealed from 
the people around her ; i. e., freed from the con- 
sciousness of being observed. 

The medium or psychic at work disengages his 
aura, which if visible, would appear as a sur- 
rounding cloud. Air-currents in the room caused 
by persons moving about, and the law of the 
diffusion of gases, would dissipate much of this 



168 S^oirit in the Realm of Life. 

aura or psychic force ; and all manifestations 
would be much weaker. ^ 

As for subdued light, or light modified by red, 
blue or purple glass ; or even total darkness, this 
may be said : psychic force hQvug j)ositive is more 
active as the light is more subdued ; for light it- 
self is a positive force. ^ 

The photographer must have a dark room in 
which to develop his negative. The actinic rays 
of light, if not excluded, destroy his plate. The 
seed must go into the darkness for burial in or- 
der to germinate ; as it will not germinate in the 
sunlight. All vegetation grows more by night 
than by day. It is in daylight that the chemical 
changes take place in the plant acted upon by 
the sun's actinic and heat rays, when the chloro- 
phile is changed into starch, and all chemical 
compounds are formed, as in opium, strychnine, 
digitalis, etc., etc. Thus the day brings forth 
the plant's chemistry, while the night brings 
forth its growth and strength. 

In the animal we see the same changes taking 
place ; only whereas the plant by day stores up 
carbon and gives off oxygen, the animal does the 
reverse. 

' At one of Mrs. Sawyer's seances the voice of a "control " 
from the cabinet requested the audience to refrain from using 
their fans. 

^ Again a cabinet control at one of the seances remarked con- 
cerning light tlaat was shining from underneath the door lead- 
ing to the hall, " That light cuts the forces ! " 



Spirit in the Realm of Life. 169 

The essential point to note in animal-life is 
that growth and repair take place to the largest 
extent by night. Hence rest is the greatest 
medical agent, Note how perfectly all bodily 
functions are carried on at night. The psychic 
forces in the consciousness-5^/'ai5« are then not 
drawing upon, and hence, in a measure, not in- 
terfering with the other psychic forces. By 
night the psychic forces of man and the life- 
principles of plants are being recuperated. Now 
the manifestations of which we are speaking, 
most particularly materializations, are, by the 
will of intelligences incarnate or discarnate, 
growths of the j)sy chic forces of man, i. e., of the 
medium and perhaps also of the entire " circle " ; 
for the material parts of the manifested forms 
are (if we may add their testimony to that of in- 
ductive reasoning) built up from the auras of 
medium, circle and the surrounding material. 
Here then we have a process of psycho-physical 
growth ; in fact, the processes of ages epitomized 
in a few moments of time. But all psycho- 
physical growth requires darkness. How much 
more therefore is darkness necessary here. We 
shall see Christ's recognition of this condition in 
His " mighty works " {dunameis) when we come 
to chapter i of Part III. 

§ 23. In conclusion : ^ one spiritual energy 
pulsates through the universe and gives birth to 

^ A conclusion which we trust will be made fully apparent 
In our next chapter. 



170 Spirit in the Bealm of Life. 

all the various forms of force which are mani- 
fested ; and has within it the potency of mate- 
rialization. In its creative work it has ever been 
seeking progressively higher forms of symmetry, 
looking to the consummation in the highest of 
all forms, namely that in which its own divine 
nature is reflected — the perfect man. 

It is spirit which quickeneth. It is the spiri- 
tual which is the fundamental principle in every 
form of life. 



CHAPTER V. 

SPIEIT IN THE EEALM OF MATTER. 

Showing that the forces immanent in and controlling so-called 
inert matter in the mineral and vegetable kingdoms and in 
the planetary system are essentially spiritual ; manifesting 
an immanent intelligence, which is seeking progressively 
higher forms of symmetry. 



We now come to consider the laws governing 
liter below the so-called biological realm. 
Matter exists in one of three states, solid. 



liquid or gaseous ; for illustration we will select 
water as a type to represent all other forms of 
matter, for what is true of this is true of all other 
substances. 

The particles composing water possess the 
property of freely moving upon each other. 
This is due to the force of cohesion. 

Cohesive force is attraction of a lesser degree 
than that which exists in frozen water, ice or 
other solid substances. If we apply heat to 
water, we find that it evaporates and passes into 
steam. 

The relative volume of water as compared to 
that of steam is 1 : 1696. This vapor, or steam 
condensed, will again result in water, showing 
that both under heat and when vaporized its 
physical properties remain the same. By this 

171 



172 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

method we simply separate the water into its 
molecules. 

" The molecules of a body when in a liquid 
state jpossess a vihratory motion about a position 
of equilibrium, and also a motion of rotation 
around their natural axis of minimum moment of 
inertia.''"' ^ 

When water is vaporized into steam we find 
that it corresponds to a definite rule or law simi- 
lar to that of elementarj'' gases. 

If we wish to separate water into its ultimate 
gaseous elements we shall have to acidulate the 
water and use the electric current to decompose 
it. By collecting these gases, we see that we 
have given off at the positive pole, oxygen ; and 
at the negative pole, hydrogen. This is proved 
by the fact that hydrogen burns and oxygen 
supports combustion when an ignited taper is 
brought in contact with each gas. We also note 
that the hydrogen occupies twice the volume of 
that of oxygen. This calls forth the law of 
Avagadro : Equal volumes of all gases, under 
like conditions of teinjperature and pressure, con- 
tain equal numbers of molecules, similar in size 
and equally distant apart. 

This demonstrates that each molecule of oxy- 
gen and hydrogen occupies definite space ; but 
we see that hydrogen gas has twice the space or 
volume that the oxygen gas occupies. Then 
there should be two molecules of hydrogen to 

^ " Crystallography " — Hinrichs. 



Spirit in the Bealm of Hatter. 173 

one of oxygen ; and this is just what we find 
and that which exists in the composition of 
water: H— O— H,=H20. 

"These molecules also possess motion. The 
molecules of a hody in a gaseous condition have a 
motion of translation and also a motion of rota- 
tion a/round the natural axis of maxi'mum mo- 
ment of inertia.''^ ^ 

A molecule is the smallest quantity of a sub- 
stance that can exist free and maintain its phys- 
ical and chemical properties. When water is 
separated into its two component gases, the in- 
dividual properties of the water are lost or de- 
stroyed. 

" So great is the force of attraction between 
the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen in forming 
water, that there is required to separate one 
pound of water into its component gases a force 
equal to raising 5,314,200 pounds one foot high ; 
and the same force is exerted when the gases 
unite to form water. 

" If these are mixed in a bag by volume, two 
volumes of hydrogen gas and one volume of oxy- 
gen gas we can demonstrate this interesting 
experiment. 

" Make a soap and water mixture and pass the 
mixed gases in a bag through a pipe, as in ma- 
king soap-bubbles. The thin film which appears 
is but a miniature bag containing the gases in 
the proper proportion. 

'0pp. Cit. Hinrichs. 



174 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

" E'ow carry a lighted taper to the soap-bubble, 
and a deafening explosion announces to us that 
the chemical union has taken place and a drop of 
water has been formed. The formation consists 
of a single drop of water so small that it could 
be held on the point of a needle." ^ 

This brings us to another important law gov- 
erning these elements, The Law of Gay Lussac's. 

I. There exists a simple relation between the 
volumes of gases which combine with each other. 

II. There exists a simple relation between 
the sum of the volumes of the constituent gases 
and the volume of gas formed by their union. 

In water we found we had one volume of oxy- 
gen gas and two volumes of hydrogen gas. When 
these three volumes unite we have two volumes 
of water existing in a gaseous state. 

We must push this analysis to its ultimate end 
to comprehend fully what all this precision means. 

We started with water, and found that by the 
aid of heat it passed into steam, or better it 
separated into its molecules. 

When the molecule of water was separated 
into its component gaseous elements, the physical 
and individual properties were lost, but two 
different gases were found. In examining these 
gases we find that each has definite properties, 
weights, etc., peculiar to itself. The atomic 
weight of hydrogen is 1 and oxygen 16. They 
are both stable substances and can exist in a free 

1 " New Chemistry " — Cook. 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 175 

state. It is interesting to know that in a free 
state each molecule of oxygen and hydrogen and 
all other elementary molecules are double, two in 
one. This brings us to the law of definite propor- 
tions : The relative weights of elementary sub- 
stances in a compound are definite and invariable. 

^^ An atom is the smallest quantity of an ele. 
mentary substance that can enter into a chemical 
reaction. The word atom can be used only in 
speahing of an elementary body ; and that only 
while it is ^passing through a chemical reaction, 
combining with other atoms. The term molecule 
applies indifferently to elements and compounds.^ 

" The atom shows another attribute known as 
the law of midtiple jpro])ortions. 

" When two elements unite with each other to 
form more than one compound, the resulting com- 
pounds contain simple multiple proportions of 
one element as compared with a constant quantity 
of the other. ''^ ^ 

Similar examples might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely, and the law holds good not only when 
two elements unite but also when several unite 
to form a compound. 



1 Whethaus' ' ' Chemistry. ' ' 










2 Nitrogen pts. 


Oxygen pts. 






by wt. 


by w^fe. 








Nitrous oxide, NjO 28 


16 


or 


14: 


:8 


Nitric oxide, N (=N202) 14 


16 


11 


14: 


;16 


Diaitric Trioxide NgOg 28 


48 


li 


14: 


;24 


Nitric Dioxide N20(=N204) 14 


32 


li 


14; 


;32 


Dinitric Pentoxide N2O5 28 


80 


<< 


14; 


;40 



176 Spirit in the Realm of Hatter. 

"The absolute weight of one atom of hydrogen 
is about one four hundred quintillionth of a mil- 
ligram or 400000000000000000000 mgr. 

"In other words, one milligram of hydrogen 
contains 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms of 
hydrogen; this would be 200,000,000,000,000,- 
000,000 molecules of hydrogen. The velocity 
of the molecules of hydrogen gas at the freezing 
point (O.o C.) is 1860 meters a second. Oxygen 
molecules move at the same temperature with a 
velocity of only 465 metres. In fact, the greater 
the 7nolecule''s weight, the smaller must he the 
molecule's velocity at the same temperature. 

" The molecules of these gases do not continue 
their motion undisturbed very long; they strike 
against neighboring molecules, or the walls of 
the containing vessel and rebound therefrom. 
The molecules of hydrogen gas continue their 
path on the average only ninety-six millimi- 
crons,^ while oxygen molecules have a mean path 
of only fifty-six millimicrons ; for the hydrogen 
molecules collide against each other 1Y,T50,- 
000,000 times a second and oxygen molecules 
7,646,000,000 times a second." ^ 

We may unite in one systematic table the 
symbols of the elements, together with the 
atomic weight and atomicity or valence of the 
same. This arrangement was first pointed out 

^ Micron — .001 millimeter. Millimicron — a millionth of a 
micron. 

^Hinrick's "Chemistry," from Maxwell. 



I-" h-' 


1-1 
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x> 


00 <! 


Oi Vt 


tt^ CO 


10 1-1 


CO 

w 
CO 


■ II 

.3 








11 

W o 


WO 

cr P 

11 II 

CDOi 




II II b 






1 


1 








^2 
II II 


03N 

3g 


if 

few 


CD 

II 

CO 


§ 






h3 


if 
o 


II 

h-l 




300 


11 11 

88g 


II 11 


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h-i 


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to w 

CO q 


II 

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9? 

CD P 

II II 

hU »— 1 
00 


N 

311 
11 J^ 



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00 00 




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1— 1 

to 


WW 





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CD 


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en CO 


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h-l H-l H-k h- * 
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177 



178 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

by ISTewlands in 1864 and further developed by 
Mendeljeff. Upon this variation Mendeljeff has 
based what is known as the Periodic Law. The 
properties of elements, the constitution of their 
cotnjpounds and the properties of the latter, are 
periodic functions of the atomic vjeights. 

By inspecting the table it will be seen that the 
number 16, the atomic weight of oxygen or a 
multiple thereof, acts as a stepping stone be- 
tween many of these elements. 

Here we see periodicity demonstrated in the 
individual elements as in the planetary system. 

An aggregation of some primordial Ij, ato7n 
substance is suggestive as a connecting link between 
these elements. 



Atomic Weight 


Atomic Weight 


Lithium 7+16=23 


Sodium (Na) = 23 


Sodium 23+16=39 


Potassium (K) = 39 


Fluorine 19+16=35 


Chlorine (CI.) = 35.5 


Sulphur 32=16x2 




Selenium 80=16x5 





Tellurium 128=16x8 

Nitrogen 14+16=:30 Atomic Weight of Phosphorus is 31 

Carbon 12+16=28 " " " Silicon 

Potassium 39+3x16=85 " " " Eubidiumis85.4 

Kubidium 85.4+3x16=133 " " " Caesium 

Some express this peculiarity as follows : 
" Atomic weight of Lithium is 7. Suppose this 
represented two four (4) atom elements, one 
superimposed above the other ; this would be a 
union and group of eight (8), but having no 
atomicity as all bonds of union are satisfied. 



Spirit in the Realm of flatter . 179 

"The removal of one corner would leave an 
element with one point of attraction which 
would be the lithium element. 

Atomic Weight 
Lithium 7+4x4=23 = Atomic Weight of Sodium 
Sodium 23+4x4=39 = " " " Potassium " ' 

Prof. I. Kemsen, of Johns Hopkins University, 
expresses this relation very nicely as follows : 

Lithium Gluoinum Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine 
7 9 11 12 14 16 19 



Sod. Mag, 
23 24 


Alum. Silic. 
27 28 


Phos. 
31 


Sulph. 
32 


Chlor. 
35.4 


CI. 35.4 


S. 32 


Li. 7 


Ca. 


40 


Br. 80 


Se. 79 


Na. 23 


So. 


87.5 


1.127 


Tell. 125 


K. 39 


Ba. 


137 



Each column represents a class of elements 
that resemble each other closely. The sum of 
the first and last, divided by 2, of each column 
will nearly equal the middle column of elements. 

35. 4+127 =81.2: 32+125 =78.5 7+39=23 

2 2 2 

40+137= 88.5 

2 

This seems to demonstrate that : ^^ The prop- 
erties of elements, the constitution of their com- 
pounds, and the properties of the latter are 
pjeriodic functions of the atomic weights of the 
elements.'''' 

" We also see a striking contrast in the atomic- 

' Hinrick's "Chemistry." 



180 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

ity or valence and the atomic weight of some 
elements. 

Atomicity or Valence 12 3 4 

Element Fl (Fluorine) O (Oxygen) N (Nitrogen) C (Carbon) 

Atomic Weight 18 16 14 12 

1 
19 (Fluorine should be 19 but it is an 
element not thoroughly investigated.) 
Organic or complex radical. 
Atomicity or Valence 12 3 4 

I I I 

Kadical — C H — C H — C H — C— 

3 2 I I 

Atomic Weight 15 14 13 12"' 

In Column YI of the table the first substance 
is the compound radical ammonium (IS" H^), 
nitrogen and hydrogen. The two unite to form 
an alkaline substance. 

In the same column the last substance is an 
acid radical cyanogen (C N). This when united 
with hydrogen gives us hydrocyanic or prussic 
acid. 

The peculiarity of these two radicals is that 
they act in combining with other elements as a 
single elementary substance. 

The blank spaces in the tables are supposed to 
represent undiscovered elements. 

Two of these theoretical elements have been 
discovered and filled in the blank space of some 
of the tables arranged more or less as the above. 
The elements are Scandium Sc. wt. 44.9 and 

'Hinrick's "Chemistry/' 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 181 

Gallium Ga. 69.8. Both resembling aluminum 
more or less. 

This is analogous to the discovery of the plan- 
ets ISTeptune and Ceres. 

Specific heat also shows analogies. The 
specific heat of the elementary atoms varies 
inversely as the atomic weight for all the ele- 
ments. This specific heat is the number of 
calories required to raise one atom one degree 
centigrade. If we multiply the specific heat of 
the atoms by its atomic weight, the product is 
practically the same, giving an average equiva- 
lent of 6.4.=(6.4). 

Professor Hinrichs states the following : 

" We believe to have established an additional 
and very remarkable instance of Unity in Nature 
— for obviously the motions of the cosmical 
bodies in the celestial space correspond exactly 
to the motions of a molecule in a gas. 

" In hoth cases, the hody has a free motion of 
translation associated with a motion of rotation 
around an axis which passes through the centre 
of gravity of the hody, and for which the moment 
of inertia of the hody is a maximum.''^ 

We shall now sum up the attributes of the 
atom elements. 

I. They have a definite weight. 

II. They have the same number of molecules 
in a given volume similar in size and equally 
distant apart. 

III. They have definite combining powers. 



182 Spirit in the Bealvi of Hatter. 

TV. There exists a simple relation between 
the volumes of gases which combine with each 
other. 

V. There exists a simple relation between 
the sum of the volumes of the constituent gas 
and the volume of the gas formed by their union. 
Gay Lussac's Laws. 

VI. They follow the law of Multiple Pro- 
portions. 

YII. Their specific heat multiplied by their 
atomic weight gives practically the same product 
for all the elements. 

YIII. They seek to unite with one electro 
negative or positive to themselves to form a 
double or a molecule and become stable on this 
plane.^ 

IX. They show a preference in selecting cer- 
tain elements with which to combine. 

This is well demonstrated in analysis in 
chemistry by the wet process, whereby the 
elements combine with special reagents and 
form definite insoluble compounds which are 
precipitated out of their solution. Without this 
preference our analytical chemistry would 
amount to very little. 

X. Through the law of periodicity they seem 
to show that they are united with some primor- 

■ In the vegetable world we have the vital or living part and 
the so-called raaterial structure. While in the animal kingdom 
we have the spiritual and the material parts, making doubles in 
all these three spheres. 



Spirit in the Realm of Blatter. 183 

dial tetrad substance or are multiples of one and 
the same thing. 

XI. "When in a gaseous state, the molecules of 
the elements have the same motions that the 
planetary bodies possess. 

XII. They show more or less of electric aflB.n- 
ities, as electro-positive and electro-negative. 

XIII. Two elements have been discovered 
whose properties were foretold and described 
since the table of periodicity was first published. 
This is analogous to the discovery of the planets 
JS'eptune and Ceres. 

First conclusion : The above is an exhibit of 
law and order. 

Second conclusion : With all these attributes 
there is an exhibition of vmTnanent intelligence. 

We infer from the above facts that the elements 
are all one and the same substance presenting it- 
self in different forms or structures. ^ 

If one substance, that substance could be but 
only one thing. 

These so-called elements have all the marks of 
ideas or thoughts which are all-pervading; and 
immanent intelligence seems to be crystallizing 
into organized form-structures. 

^ Carbon is a beautiful illustration of these various conditions 
or states, e. g., charcoal, bituminous coal, anthracite coal, 
graphite, and finally that crystallized gem of radiant sunlight 
called the diamond. 

Cane sugar and gum arable have the same chemical formula, 
the arrangement of the molecules making the difference in both 
cases. 



184 Sjnrit in the Realm of Blatter. 

Additional proof will presently be given. 

"We now revert to certain details in the fore- 
going analysis. We see that the atom cannot 
exist in a free state, for its force of attraction is 
so great that it seeks to hecome united with one 
opposite in character to itself, to exist as an indi- 
vidual element, or enter into a definite chemical 
compound. 

That an atom does exist in a compound we de- 
termine by the definite weight, its molecular 
structure, its gaseous volume, and the satisfied 
valance of the compound. 

We know that the atom seeks to maintain its 
individuality and can exist as a double or mole- 
cule of any element. 

We know that the two gases, hydrogen and 
oxygen, seek each other and do unite in definite 
proportions to form water. This shows that at- 
traction is great, even in the ultimate atom, seek- 
ing to maintain an existence as a definite individual 
substance. 

We also learn from chemistry that atoms have 
natural or preferred selections or tastes, e. g., hy- 
drogen and oxygen to form water ; barium and 
sulphuric acid to form barium sulphate ; calcium 
and oxalic acid to form calcium oxalate ; silver 
and chlorine to form silver chloride, etc., etc. 
(These are the most stable and fixed compounds 
of these elements.) 

There is here manifested a tendency in the in- 
dividual atom to form 2^ fixed, stahle and crystal- 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 185 

lized compound, one more complex in a series and 
possessing a higher symmetry. 

l^\i\'s> powerful and all-present force of attraction 
in the atom with its inherent affinities showing a 
preference for certain other eletnents and seeking 
to constricct stable forms of a definite higher sym- 
tnetry or structure, constitutes the basis of intelli- 
gent evolution in matter. This is wrongly called 
fortuitous, accidental or natural selection. It is 
on its face an inherent, intelligent, intentional 
design of the molecules to reach a higher plane 
of development. 

Let us now look at the properties and attri- 
butes of the solid state of matter, and as an ex- 
ample, let us take water in its solid form, — ice. 

If we lower the temperature of water to 
39. 83 °F., it is then at its greatest density. Below 
this the water begins to expand, and at 32°F. it 
becomes solid, if slightly agitated. If at absolute 
rest, the temperature of the water may be low- 
ered to 5°F. without becoming solid. If slightly 
agitated, it immediately becomes solid, and the 
temperature rises to 32°F. ^ This expansion is 
due to absorption of air and a further separation 
of its molecules. 

The resulting lump of ice, if placed in water, 
will float on account of the air that it has ab- 
sorbed, and being bulk for bulk lighter than 
water. About one-ninth of the ice is above the 
surface and eight-ninths below the surface. 

^ Withaus' * ' Chemistry. ' ' 



186 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

This lump of ice is made up of definite shaped 
crystals. The best way in which to examine 
these crystalline structures is to catch the snow- 
flakes upon dark or black cloth. 

The C7'ystalline structure is what all elements 
seek to produce., as it is a regular and orderly 
arrangement of its molecules, and is a true 
resemhlance to the individual molecule and 
atom. 

These snowflakes Professor Tyndall very ap- 
propriately calls ice-flowers. As the flower 
shows forth the structure of the plant, so these 
hexagonal forms disclose the six-sided structure 
of the molecules that compose ice. 

These six-petals make with each other a reg- 
ular angle of 60°. Six times 60° equals 360°, 
the total number of degrees in a circle. 

While the feathery petals of these beautiful 
ice-flowers may vary and show many shoots and 
varying leaf-structures, each seeks to produce 
and always does produce its definite angle 
of 60°. 

Divide these crystals of ice so the most power- 
ful microscope can just distinguish the substance, 
and we shall see the same six-sided figure. This 
is true of all the other elements in a crj^stalline 
state. Their molecules seek to arrange themselves 
i/n definite shapes., angles and lines of cleavage. 
As the molecules one after another separate from 
the gas or solution, they cease their rotations 
and remain fixed in positions parallel to that of 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 187 

the crystal already existing. This is the general 
law of aggregation or crystallization. ^ 

This proves that in cleavage a crystal is com- 
posed of its molecules in exactly parallel posi- 
tions. ^ This statement can be demonstrated by 
passing a ray of light through one way, and 
when the crystal is turned at right angles, the 
light is refracted. 

The law of molecules in a solid is this : — The 
molecules of a l)odywhen in a solid state have only a 
mhratory motion ahout a position of eguilihrium.^ 

" If we arrange the crystal forms according to 
their degree of symmetry^ we find the higher types 
prevail over the lower ones. But since the num- 
ber of possible forms of lower symmetry is much 
greater, matter in the act of crystallization seems 
to select the forms of higher symmetry. 

" Thus of 1944: measured crystallized substances 
94 have no symmetry (triclinic) ; 5Y1 have one 
plane of symmetry (monoclinic) ; 1279 have two 
(3) planes of symmetry (orthoclinic). 

" Of these latter 538 have no rotary symmetry 
(are rhombic), while 741 have rotary symmetry (are 
quadratic, hexagonal, rhombohedial or tesseral)." ^ 

We feel that we have shown the following 
facts about so-called inert matter : 

I, The atom of an element cannot exist free, 
and has a movement of translation and rotation 
with marked affinity to combine with another 
atom seemingly of its own kind, (electro-negative or 

^ " Crystallography," Hiniichs. 



188 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

positive), to form a molecule. It has a definite 
weight, valence and powers of natural or pre- 
ferred selection. 

II. The molecule of a substance is the smallest 
particle of matter that can exist in a free state, 
and these molecules are double, having definite 
forms and regular laws governing their action. 

III. The atoms forming the molecule seek to 
enter into composition with other elementary 
atoms forming higher chemical compounds. 

lY. The crystalline structure is the highest 
type of representation of the elements of 
inorganic matter, and the structure resembles 
the individual molecule and atom comprising the 
substance. 

Y. Matter in the act of crystallization seehs 
to select the form of higher symmetry. 

YI. The behavior of the element indicates 
that there is a directing intelligence. The 
chemical action being constant, demonstrates 
that this intelligence resides within rather than 
outside of the element ; that it is immanent and 
not extraneous. 

These propositions being true, we must admit 
that this shows a sense of intelligence. 

We have demonstrated attraction which is 
always present in the atom, molecule and mass, 
and its wonderful power and intelligence seehing 
to arrange the molecules in the highest symmetry 
as in crystallization. Hence intelligence poten- 
tially omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient is 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 189 

established in so-called inert matter. And it ap- 
pears to manifest itself in accordance with Lam- 
rack's law of appetency, which, as hereinbefore 
explained, is a phase of the law of subliminal 
assimilation : In the act of crystallization im- 
pulses within correspond to the rotary movements 
of the molecules. The atoms combining with 
other atoms or atom-elements and the slower mo- 
tion of the molecules constitutes the environ- 
mental changes. 

Structural modification is brought about by 
the atoms in the act of crystallization seeking to 
select the highest forms of symmetry. 

Having finished the analysis on inorganic mat- 
ter, we shall show some interesting facts about 
the planets and the vegetable realm, and shall con- 
clude with some remarks on the animal organism.^ 

^ The following table is copied from the book ' ' Religion and 
Chemistry," by J. P. Cook, Jr., 1865. 

IjAw of Peeiodic Times. 





Yearly rotation 


Theoretical 


Fractions. 




observed. 


yearly rotation. 




Neptune 


60,127 


62,000 




Urarnis 


30,687 


31,000 


h 


Saturn 


10,759 


10,333 


^ 


Jupiter 


4,333 


4,133 


1 


Asteroids 


1,200 to 2,000 


1,550 


f 


Mars 


687 


596 


A 


Earth 


365 


366x^3 1 
227if / 


8 


Yenus 


225 


21 


Mercury 


88 


87 


M 



After the first two each succeeding fraction is obtained by 
adding the numerators and denominators ; ^, \, f , f , fV> A» 
If. Compute series. 



190 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

Sir Eobert Stowell Ball LL. D. in his late work 
The Story of the Heavens (pp. 229, 230) says : 

" In the diagram (p. 234) of the orbits of the 
various planets it is shown that a wide space exists 
between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter. 

" It was surmised that this ample region must 
be tenanted by some other planet. The pre- 
sumption became much stronger when a re- 
markable law was discovered which exhibited 
with considerable accuracy the relative distances 
of the great planets of our system. Take the 
series of numbers, 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, whereof 
each number (except the second) is double of the 
number which precedes it. 

" If we now add four to each, we have the 
series 4, 7, 10, 16, 28, 52, 100. With the excep- 
tion of the fifth of these numbers (28) they are 
all sensibly proportional to the distance of the 
various planets from the sun. In fact, the dis- 
tances are as follows : Mercury, 3,9 ; Yenus, 7.2 ; 
Earth, 10; Mars, 15.2; Jupiter, 52.9; Saturn, 95.4. 

" Although we have no physical reason to offer 
why this law, — generally known as Bode's, — 
should be true, yet the fact that it is so nearly 
true in case of all the known planets tempts us 
to ask whether there may not also be a planet 
revolving around the sun, at the distance repre- 
sented by 28. 

"It was January 1, 1801, that Piozzi located a 
planet at the position between Mars and Jupiter 
(28) and called it Ceres. Piozzi had searched for 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 191 

this planet 159 nights, taking fifty stars each 
night. For three nights he had located this 
moving star and noted its position. This planet 
became lost. Gauss a young German mathema- 
tician opened his distinguished career by a 
successful attempt to solve the orbit of this 
planet. 

" When, therefore, the progress of the seasons 
permitted the observations to be renewed, the 
search was recommenced. The telescope was 
directed to the point which Gauss' calculations 
indicated and there was the little Ceres. Ever 
since its rediscovery the planet has been so com- 
pletely bound in the toils of mathematical rea- 
soning that its place every night of the year can 
be indicated with a fidelity approaching to that 
attainable in observing the moon or the great 
planets of our system." The diameter of this 
planet is 485 miles. 

The Law of Geavitation, ok the Plane- 
TAET Laws. 

I. Each jplanet revolves around the sun in an 
eUiptiG path having the sun at one of the foci. 

II. Every planet moves around the sun with 
such a velocity at every point that a straight line 
drawn from it to the sun passes over equal areas 
in equal times. 

III. The squares of the periodic times are 
proportional to the cicbes of the mean distances.^ 

^ Ball's " Astroaomy." 



192 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

This proves beyond doubt the law and order of 
the planets. 

We had arrived at the conclusion that the 
molecule element had the same identical motion 
in our ether space that the largest planets pos- 
sess. But we find that Prof. J. P. Cook, Jr., in 
his book, " Religion and Chemistry " (page 335) 
had published this in 1865. 

Prof. Gustavus Hinrichs, late of the State 
University of Iowa, now of St. Louis, Mo., dis- 
covered this same motion and published it about 
186Y to 1870. 

Here we have three arriving at the same con- 
clusion independently of each other. 

In this article we have called attention to the 
ever-present force in the atom to combine with 
another element. We will now quote what 
Professor Cook says on this energy in his book 
on " Religion and Chemistry." 

^^All natural jplienorriena are the manifestation 
of the same omnipresent energy, which is trans- 
ferred from one jportion of matter to another 
without any loss of power. 

^^The sum total of all the active and latent energies 
in the tmiverse is constant and invariable. In 
other words, power is as indestructible as matter. ^^ 

This brings us to what ^Newton said many 
years ago, and is believed by many philosophers, 
that " matter in its essence is only a manifes- 
tation of power." 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 



193 



Passing now to the vegetable kingdom, we 
find again the same numerical laws. The leaves 
of a plant are always arranged in spirals around 
the stem. If we start from any one leaf and 
count the number of leaves around the stalk and 
the number of turns of the spiral until we come to 
a second leaf immediately over the first, we find 
that for any given plant, as an apple-tree, for ex- 
ample, the number of leaves and the number of 
turns of the spiral are always absolutely the 
same. 





The simplest arrangement is where the coinci- 
dence occurs at the second leaf, after a single 
turn of the spiral ; and this may be expressed by 
the fraction ^, whose numerator denotes the 
number of turns of the spiral, and whose denomi- 
nator the number of leaves. 

The next simplest arrangement is when the 
coincidence occurs at the third leaf, after a single 
turn of the spiral, and may be expressed by the 
fraction i^. These two fractions express re- 
spectively the greatest and the smallest diver- 



194 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 



gence between the successive leaves whicli have 
been observed. 

The angle between two successive leaves, 
therefore, is never greater than 180° or one-half 
the circumference of the stem, and never less 
than 120°, or one-third of the circumference.^ 

It will be seen that we have precisely the same 
series of fractions in the arrangement of leaves 
around the stem of the plant which appears in 

^ Law of Phyllotoxis (Leaf Arrangement). 











Arrangement 










of divergence 




No. of turns 


No. of 




between two 


Name of Plant. 


of spiral. 


Leaves. 


Fractions. 


successive 
leaves. 


Grasses 


1 


2 


1 

2 


180° 


Sedges 


1 


3 


i 


128° 


Apple 










Cherry ■ 


2 


5 


f 


144° 


Poplar 










Holly 










Callistimon - 


3 


8 


f 


135° 


Aconite 










Rosettes of the 










Houseleek 










Cones of the 


5 


13 


A 


138° 28^ 


White Pine 










Cones of the 










European Larch 


8 


21 


^r 


137° 9' 


Certain Pine Co 


Qes 13 


34 


if 


137° 39^ 


i( (1 


' 21 


55 


H 


137° 27^ 



Typical arrangement which would expose to the sun's rays 
the greatest leaf surface 137° 30^ 28'''. 



'Eeligion and Chemistry," Cook. 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 195 

the periods of the planets. This law does not 
stop with the planets. 

The same series of fractions expresses also the 
spiral arrangement of the tentacles of the polyp 
and the spines of the Echinus. 

Thus through the whole realm of nature, from 
the structure of the crystals to the dimensions of 
the human form, a similar numerical simplicity 
is preserved. 

The ultimate analysis of plants reveals these 
atoms : Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), 
Nitrogen (IST), the mineral part of the plant be- 
ing but a fraction in percentage of the plant, as 
Calcium (Ca), Potash (K), Sodium (Ka), Iron (Fe) 
and Sulphur (S). We see here the elements 
seeking to select the higher forms of syTnmetry. 
This is shown in the regular order of the flower, 
the molecular arrangement of the cells and the 
crystallised compounds we extract from the jplants 
as medicines^ morphine^ strychnine^ quinine^ etc. 

It is in the plant that we find for the first time 
nitrogen as an albuminoid substance assimilable 
as animal food. This albuminoid solution is the 
basis of animal life. 

The exact chemical form has never been as- 
certained for the albuminoid substances, and 
they have been looked upon as the highest 
molecular arrangement, as they constitute the 
cell basis of the animal kingdom. We find the 
amoeba, the tissue of the plant and of men made 
up of these living cells composed of this nitro- 



196 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 



genous substance. We shall add a few formulae 
representing different substances.^ 

' The atomic arrangement ia supposed to represent the crys- 
talline structure of the following substances : 

.-o^ ^o 

Caldc Solphata. Q O 

IK-0-S-O-Al-Al-O-S-O-K 

1 t I n 

O o 



o o 

Potassio-Atomlnic Sulphate (AlaiD).^ 



H-0-S-0-H=H> SO, 

D - - i ' ■* 

O 

SulpburlcrAcld. 

o o 

H-0-C-0-0-H=C H O. 

Oxalic Acid. * 2. 4- 



.^O 



o^. 



Magnesic Sulphate. 



^o-c=o ^ ♦ 

Calcic Oxalate. 



o 

a 

6 



H H H O 

• II J 

-0-C-C-^O-N 



B H 
0-0 



I ,1 J 
HO H 

= ^=O 



H 



H 



H-0 

= 

0-0 



0-H 



H 



V / 

0-0 H 
I 



H-0-0 0-N-O d-O-H 



/ 



(H 0=0 H = H, 



H H 



H H 



Bosaniline. 



"New Chemistry." — Cook. 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 197 

For years alizarine, the coloring principle of 
the madder-root, used in calico-printing, was 
sought by chemists synthetically. The molecular 
arrangement of the atoms could not be solved 
until the German chemist, Graebe, accidentally 
stumbled upon its interesting formula.^ 

We see that by these individual atoms a molecule 
is formed representing an individual substance. 
This arrangement is always definite ; if not, the 
substance would not be produced. The cinchona 
tree produces quinine, the poppy morphine, the 
madder-root alizarine, etc. Like begets like. 
The atoms in organic matter arrange themselves 
to form definite crystals and substances. 

"With all of man's intelligence, he fails to pro- 
duce artificially, that is, by synthesis, many of 
these substances. Are we then to say that these 
atoms arrange themselves in their complex forms 
without any inherent or immanent intelligence, 
and that it just Tiapjpens this way ? 

' The following is its peculiar structore : 

H 

\> H 

C H 
_ jfi \. / \ / 
0-C C H 
11 a \ / 
0-0 C 0-0 

CE, 

o c-c 

H H H 

AaUiraqtdsoslc Acid (AU^rSne). 



198 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

We helieve that it indicates not only intelli- 
gence^ hut it demonstrates that everything in na- 
ture seeTcs to progress, and to produce higher forms 
of sy7ninetry. 

We might speak of the adjustment of the 
atmosphere for the support of all forms of life ; 
its very poor conducting properties for heat and 
cold. This protects the earth from the excessive 
heat from the sun's rays, and also prevents the 
radiation of heat that has been absorbed by the 
earth. 

In the ocean, lakes and bodies of water, we 
notice an all-wise provision. The seaweed and 
other vegetation absorb carbon dioxide from the 
fish and other living inhabitants, and by the ac- 
tion of the actinic rays of the sun, the carbon is 
stored away in the water plants and a certain 
necessary amount of oxygen is given off to sup- 
ply and support the fish and all other creatures 
of the deep. Certain fish, lizards, cat-fish, etc., 
act as scavengers ; the snails, newts, etc., keep 
down the algee, so we have a perfectly adjusted 
balance ; the fish live, the water is kept pure, and 
the enormous growth of algae is kept within 
certain limits. 

On the earth we have all necessary vegetation 
for animals and man, forests for shade and lum- 
ber. In the earth, all necessary minerals, lime, 
coal, oil, etc., etc., that man finds stored here 
available for his needs. Can this be all by chance 
or accident, or does it show intelligence ? 



Spirit in the Bealm of Matter. 199 

This brings us to the law of subconscious 
assimilation. "We have demonstrated that in the 
atom as in the larger masses the planets, we have 
law and order. ^ The arrangement of the atoms 
seeking to form higher and more complex and 
stable compounds shows immanent intelligence. 

These same immutable laws prevail in the 
vegetable and animal worlds. This evidently 
proves that the universe is but crystallized 
thought structures; whence it appears that 
thoughts are literally things. 

In man the law of assimilation is this : The 
thoughts, through the immanent intelligence, 
seek to arrange themselves in selective order 
whereby the highest symmetry will be attained 
for the individual's good. This is demonstrated 
in hypnosis. Good suggestions are assimilated, 
while bad ones are rather rejected and the sub- 
ject refuses to be brought to a lower plane than 
his normal waking morality. If adverse, deba- 
sing, low or injurious suggestions for a very long 
time are continued^ these suggestions then may 
act as environmental changes and stojp the natural 
and inherent growth^ as we see by children 
brought up in the slums of a city, among thieves, 
liars, desperadoes, etc. If these waifs are trans- 
planted and held under restraint for a time, the 
inherent good tendencies will come out, or they 
will be reflected to better the future lives of their 
children. This gives man a chance for his spiri- 

' See Law of Subconscious Assimilation. Foot-note page 143. 



200 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

tual part to become an organized Godlike struc- 
ture of intelligence. ^ 

This then seems to prove to us, without petitio 
principii, that the inorganic elements are hut 
primordial thoughts, with force and intelligence, 
seeking to arrange jpermanent, symmetrical organ- 
ized structures of higher intelligence. 



General Note to Chapters IV, V. 

From the facts reviewed in the last two chapters, especially 
those in chapter v, it would seem that the following proposition 
were justifiable : Thoughts have within them the promises 
and potencies of things. 

This the reader will recognize as a reversal of Professor Tyn- 
dall's famous admission, viz., that matter contains within it the 
promises and potencies of all forms of life. 

From what we have shown in our last chapter it is clear that 
the psychic element or spiritual principle immanent m matter 
alone makes a proposition like Professor Tyndall's intelligible. 

In other words, matter exists, and exists as an ordered part 
of the cosmos, because of the spiritual principle which is resi- 
dent in it and apparently inseparable from it. The extended 
universe is the expression of spirit ; the materialization of 
divine intelligence. It represents Deific Thought transformed 
into Extended Thing. 

' The facts of anthropology, however, seem to indicate the 
presence in man of a tendency to assimilate enough badness 
(which tendency itself seems to have become assimilated) to 
negative the doctrine of certain modern evolutionists tliat man 
is inherently good and needs only education to enable him to attain 
to the Divine Ideal. On that head, see Part III., chapter ii,, 
§ 2 : Christ as the Head of a new Celestial Humanity through 
His Immaculate Conception. 



Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 201 

We have seen (chapter iv) that ideas, as we know them in 
the department of human psychology, are forces ; that thoughts 
are potential projectiles. If we may reason from microcosm to 
macrocosm, we may say that the ordered forces of nature are 
divine ideas or thoughts in process of projection. 

The intimate (though as yet unsolved) relationship between 
spirit and matter, thought and thing, is most strikingly illus- 
trated in those manifestations described by us in chapter ii, 
p. 75, and chapter iii, §§ 8-10, — Materialization. 

The determining factor in this phenomenon is will ; which is 
of course spiritual. Let judgment be suspended, if the reader 
chooses, as to whose will it is, that of an incarnate or a dis- 
carnate person. In either case personal will is the determining 
factor. 

Take a specific case. Suppose we select that witnessed by us 
through Mrs. Sawyer's mediumship described in chapter iii of 
Part II, pp. 114 et seq. 

A whirring, churning noise is heard, and there rushes from 
the cabinet a girl's form attired in appropriate feminine garb, 
the garments dripping with moisture as though she had just 
emerged from the ocean. 

"Whence came the fleshly and palpable form ? Whence the fab- 
ric of the garments ? Whence the water with which they were 
dripping ? Whence in short, the material of the manifestations ? 

On the spiritistic hypothesis they were created by the will of 
the discarnate spirit to symbolize the manner in which she had 
passed out of the earth-life. 

On the mundane psychic hypothesis they were the projected 
and materialized thoughts of the medium. On either hypothesis 
their eiScient cause and source was personal will. The thought- 
image of form, garment-fabric, water, accompanied by a voli- 
tion for their materialization, produced them. The thought by 
some unfathomed process of organic and inorganic chemistry be- 
came realized as the thing. In the thought there was a force 
which mediated the transformation from spirit to matter. 

The following case also came under our observation : Upon 
a slate three or four feet from the ' ' psychic ' ' was precipitated 
a beautiful oil-painting of a five-pointed star surrounded by 
lilies of the valley. It was recognized by one of the members 



202 Spirit in the Realm of Matter. 

of the circle as a " message ' ' from Lillian Starr, a deceased 
relative. 

We have personally witnessed the projection of force by mind 
upon matter through the mediation of ' ' psychics " so as to 
cause messages to be written upon a typewriter four feet dis- 
tant and to precipitate oil-portraits and beautiful landscapes 
upon slates and porcelain tablets, — works of art accomplished 
in from thirty to fifty seconds which would require an artist 
working by normal means a day or more to execute. 

We believe that the facts to which we pointed in chapter v 
all go to show a synthesis between mind and matter. In the 
realm which includes the plant-world, the mineral-kingdom, 
the planetary system — a realm commonly handed over to force 
and matter only — we see intelligence immanently manifest and 
at the head of an hierarchy ; — thought realizing itself in the 
thing ; — thought and thing, phases of one eternal entity ; and 
ever seeking to manifest itself in progressively higher form of 
symmetry. From the star-dust to man it is one harmonious 
interaction of a threefold hierarchy, intelligence, force, matter ; 
intelligence always at the head ; or rather, to express the one 
entity in symbolic terms, — intelligence heing the head, force 
the nerves, and matter the body. 

We conclude that thoughts indeed, as we have already ob- 
served, have the potentiality of things ; that intelligence, force 
and matter are cosmic eternities ; an everlasting hierarchy over 
which intelligence rules ; and that there is no necessary conflict 
between materialism and idealism. 



CHAPTER YL 

THE NEW DATA SUMMAEIZED, 

Eeview of chief points in Part II. Their character as verifi- 
cations of the superphysical element in the gospel. 

In passing in review the results established by 
psychic research we have not aimed at the 
thoroughness demanded by a separate treatise 
on psychic fact and theory ; we have merely en- 
deavored so to marshal the main points as to 
preclude the possibility of their being passed by 
" on the other side " as evidential factors. That 
strange oblivion on the part of current Christian 
Apologetics to the evidential weight of modern 
superphysical phenomena (to which we referred 
in our introduction) has rendered necessary in 
our judgment the dimensions to which the second 
part of our work has attained. 

The main points which we have endeavored 
here to marshal, summed up, are these : 

(1) That point so logically taken by Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes in reply to those who d priori and 
dogmatically rejected his findings, viz. (to quote 
his words) " If a new fact seems to oppose what 
is called a law of nature, it does not prove the 
asserted fact to be false, but only that we have 

203 



204 The New Data Summarized. 

not yet ascertained all the laws of nature, or not 
yet learned them correctly." 

So the dogmatic rejection of superphysical 
phenomena by the materialists is pure question- 
begging. 

(2) Their attempt to dispute the evidence on 
empirical grounds is seen to be futile when we 
consider the painstaking precautions against 
" sources of error in observation " uniformly pur- 
sued by such investigators as Sir "William Crookes 
and the psychical research organization, 

(3) The chief classes of facts brought out are 
these : 

(i) " Subliminal " memory and intuition, which 
we pass by as having no further bearing on our 
subject. 

(ii) Psychic action at a distance. 

a. The action of intelligently-directed psychic 
force upon matter. 

First. Upon inorganic matter, as ponderable 
objects, substances, etc., manifested in : 

{a) Telekinesis or mechanical movements, levi- 
tation, dynamic control, etc., and 

(5) Psycho-chemicalization, or production by 
psychic agency of chemical changes in material 
substances. 

Second. The action of intelligently-directed 
psychic force upon the organic matter of the hu- 
man body ; as in mesm-eric phenomena applied 
either in healing (psycho-therapeutics) or in other 
ways. 



The New Data Summarized. 205 

b. The action of psychic force upon psychic 
force, mind upon mind, or spirit upon spirit. 

This is manifested in : 

(a) Telepathy or the transmission of thought 
from mind to mind ; and in 

{h) Clairvoyance, or the independent percep- 
tion of distant scenes or future events. 

(iii) Still another class of psychic facts to 
which in Part II we have given a passing refer- 
ence ; a discussion of whose verity we have re- 
served for Appendix B, are those which fall un- 
der the head of discarnate spirit-communication. 
We have, it is true, dwelt at considerable length 
upon materializing phenomena. We suspend 
formal judgment as to whether those witnessed 
by ourselves or by Sir William Crookes and 
others manifest discarnate or incarnate agency. 
The chief point of interest for the present is that 
living, palpable, intelligent, human organisms can 
he and are materialized hy superphysical agency. 

(4) We have tried to bring out the fact that 
the basic cause of all superphysical phenomena 
is found in the spiritual constitution of the uni- 
verse. By " spirit " we mean an intelligent will, 
whether it be infinite or finite, incarnate or dis- 
carnate. 

We have, we think, shown that both in the 
realm of life and of matter, there is an all-per- 
vading or immanent intelligence which is ever 
seeking to find expression in progressively higher 
forms of symmetry. 



206 The New Data Summarized. 

"We have shown that the Divine Spirit has 
found the highest form of symmetry in that con- 
summation of the life realm, the human organism. 

We have shown that man, as he exists on 
earth, is a trichotomy, consisting of spirit, the in- 
telligent, animating principle ; soul, the fine 
ethereal organism of psychic forces in their com- 
plexity of adjustments ; and body, the unstable, 
coarser structure of evanescent arrangements, of 
which soul is the permanent duplicate, as well as 
the efficient cause of its (the body's) life. 

We have shown that the human spirit poten- 
tially controls the soul's forces to the extent of 
projecting them, as in an aura, to produce psy- 
chic action upon matter ; as in telekinetic, psy- 
cho-chemical, and mesmeric phenomena. 

We have shown that spirit acts upon spirit, as 
in telepathy or hypnosis at a distance ; and that 
mind sees into the distance or the future, as in 
clairvoyance, through a medium in which space 
and time are swallowed up, — the medium of 
spirit infinite or mind absolute, 

(5) And now let us review the conditions un- 
der which spiritual agency produces superphysical 
phenomena : 

(a) In physical manifestations. 

(i) Here co7ifdence on the operator's part is 
indispensable — i. e., where the phenomena are 
sought and not spontaneous. 

This confidence may be impaired, if not de- 
stroyed, by the adverse suggestions of others 



The New Data Sumviarized. 207 

either expressed verbally or impressed hy telep- 
athy. It is probable that with the adverse sug- 
gestions there is projected a psychic force which 
neutralizes that of the operator. 

Most necessary is this confidence in the case of 
psychic healing. 

(ii) In telekinesis, materialization, etc., the 
exclusion of the caloric and the actinic rays is a 
most favoring condition, though not always in- 
dispensable. 

(iii) In psychic healing faith on the part of 
the patient is so necessary as to be almost indis- 
pensable. Only those healers whose control over 
their psychic forces is ideal can overcome those 
counter-forces which adverse suggestions on the 
patient's part bring into play. 

(iv) Hypnosis or trance, which means sup- 
pression of possible adverse forces in the strata 
of consciousness, is a condition in which a phys- 
ical medium is insured against adverse auto-sug- 
gestions and is thus made ^e^-confident. 

It is also a condition in which a patient is 
prevented from opposing the healer with adverse 
suggestions ; and is thus rendered receptive of as 
much psychic force as the healer is able to pro- 
ject. 

(v) In twenty per cent of all people adverse 
suggestions can be self-suppressed without hyp- 
nosis ; which fact enables us to understand the 
success which the delusive and absurd sugges- 
tions of Christian Science healers have achieved. 



208 The Neio Data Summarized. 

(b) Mental passivity, trance or hypnosis, are 
conditions which serve to bring the human 
spirit into rapj}ort with the absolute, thus en- 
abling it to become receptive of telepathic com- 
munications or of those things which the Divine 
Spirit may see fit to reveal, as in clairvoyance. 

(6) The present occurrence of superphysical 
phenomena under known conditions renders 
credible the past occurrence of like phenomena 
under like conditions. The cloud of suspicion 
which overshadows the historical argument in 
the form of the materialistic dogma, " Miracles," 
i. e., supernormal phenomena, "do not happen 
now " is dispelled by the results of modern 
psychic research. 

The way is now cleared for the task of Part 
III, the enquiry, Do the evangelists represent 
Jesus as performing superphysical works of the 
same class as those observed in modern times, 
and as recognizing and employing like condi- 
tions ? If so, what are the evidential con- 
sequences ? 



Part III. 
The New Verification Applied. 

^^ According to your faith, be it unto you." — St. Matt. 
10:24. 

" Verily, I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain 
of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Re- 
move hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove ; and 
nothing shall be impossible unto you.'" — St. Matt. 
17:20. 

** Jesus was the first to proclaim the great law of 
Faith." — Hudson's " Law of Psychic Phenomena," 
p. 160. 

" And all the multitude sought to touch him, ; for 
power came forth from him and healed them all." 
—St. Luke 6:19. 

^'■Like many other forces of nature, it defies analysis. 
That it exists, and that under certain conditions not 
yet very clearly defined, it can be controlled by the con- 
scious intelligence of man, is as certain as the existence 
of electricity." — Hudson's " Law," etc., p. 171. 



209 



CHAPTER I. 

cheist's woeks of healing in the light of 
psychic law. 

Demonstrating how Christ in His works of healing is repre- 
sented as recognizing and utilizing the negative condition 
of faith on the patient's part, and the positive condition 
of psychic or vital force ; which facta prove the veracity 
of the evangelists and Christ's scientific insight into psychic 
conditions. 

§ 1. "We believe that the enquiry which con- 
cludes our last chapter of Part II answers it- 
self. If it is a demonstrable fact that the 
evangelists represent Jesus as performing super- 
physical works of the same kind as those per- 
formed to-day, and as recognizing and utilizing 
like conditions, then two facts are proved : 
evangelical veracity and Christ's inerrant psychic 
insight. 

In this chapter we shall try to make plain 
from the data supplied by the evangelists that 
the latter do so represent and report their Hero ; 
viz., as the great psychic healer who was the 
first to discover those conditions of psycho- 
therapeutics which twentieth century enlighten- 
ment is just beginning to find out anew. 

§ 2. "We are aware that in this statement we 
may offend the preconceptions of an unreflecting 

211 



212 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

traditionalism which poses as " orthodox " ; a 
traditionalism which deems impious any other 
view of Christ's superphysical works than that 
of downright miracle in the popular sense of that 
term ; viz., an arbitrary suspension of cosmic law 
by Divine ^«^. Man-made tradition would have 
it that the Master healed the sick by a mere de- 
cree regardless of conditions or limitations. 
Man-made tradition would divorce these works 
from that great and glorious organism of self- 
spending human love which the Nazarene mani- 
fested from John's baptism to Calvary's crown- 
ing altar. We propose to show from the re- 
corded statements of the gospel-story that these 
" traditions of the elders," which tend to make 
Christ's sacrificial Saviourhood " of none effect," 
are heterodox, in that they have no support in 
the evangelical record. We propose to appeal 
from human tradition to " the law and the testi- 
mony." 

One more preliminary observation: Suppose 
we are " doubting Thomases " ; — people who are 
earnestly desirous of some reasonable proof that 
the gospel-record is veracious. We are met by 
the dogmatist who tells us that if the gospel re- 
cords superphysical works that is enough ; the 
case is closed ; no further argument is necessary ; 
enquiry is blasphemy. 

Now no doubt the most convincing popular 
proof of gospel veracity, as one of Mr. Connor's 
cowboy characters expresses it in that powerful 



Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 213 

story " The Sky Pilot " ;— is " by the feel of it." 
We are willing to admit that even earnest and 
honest skepticism argues a certain lack of spiritual 
sensibility. But even so, is it not recorded that 
Christ eagerly proffered to His doubting apostle 
the evidential proofs which the latter demanded ? 
For He came to seek and to save that which was 
lost. 

Are there not to-day thousands of people hun- 
gering and thirsting after righteousness, who 
nevertheless " stumble " at the so-called mirac- 
ulous element in the gospel-story ? From the 
dawning of their intellectual maturity they have 
breathed the arid and rarified air of unfaith ; 
they have assimilated the hard materialism in the 
midst of which they have grown up. To them 
all stories which relate the superphysical are in 
one respect alike ; — they are fairy-tales ; human 
dreams. In another respect such dreams are not 
all alike. Some of them are nightmares ; others 
are cheap and silly ; a few of them are beautiful. 
In this last class stands the "Dream of the 
Gospel," a story whose perusal arouses the ex- 
clamation, " "Would that it were true ! " 

Kow these seekers after well-attested truth 
are candid. All that they demand is sufficiency 
of attestation. They respect solid evidence even 
though that evidence comjDletely demolishes all 
their former convictions. We will suppose that 
they candidly examine the evidence for Tnodern 
superphysical phenomena. In that case but one 



214 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

result is conceivable : they are fully convinced 
that such phenomena are present day occurrences. 
We leave it to the impartial reader to say what 
the result would be if it can be shown that the 
gospel-writers do not represent their Hero as one 
who sets at nought established conditions, as so 
many narrators of the marvellous are prone to 
do, but represent Him as working under well- 
defined conditions identical with those brought 
to light to-day. Could the result be aught else 
than conviction ? 

§ 3. At the risk of undue repetition we must 
remind ourselves of two of the known conditions 
under which modern superphysical phenomena 
occur; namely, those mentioned on pages 206- 



(1) That a psychic agent or operator can do 
nothing unless he has co7iJldence in his power to 
control the forces whereby his work is to be ac- 
complished. 

(2) That in psychic healing faith on the pa- 
tient's part is a most important factor. 

We are aware that the first named of these 
conditions is scouted by modern " Suggestion- 
ists " — and by " Suggestionists " we mean that class 
of practitioners who believe that all psychic cures 
can be covered by the phrase, which they neglect 
to define, " Amenability or susceptibility to sug- 
gestion." 

Their method, which is best exemplified at the 
Nancy Hospital under Benheim and Liebault, is 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 215 

to let the patient hypnotize himself by gazing 
fixedly at revolving mirrors or bright objects ; 
and having established rapjyort between patient 
and operator, (as described on page 15Y) they (the 
operators) impart the required suggestions of re- 
covery, improvement, etc. 

What these practitioners fail to see (as we 
pointed out on page 158) is that a suggestive idea 
is itself a jpsyoliic force ; that its strength de- 
pends upon the power with which it goes forth 
from operator to subject ; that this last in turn 
depends upon the control which the operator has 
over his own forces ; and that this in its turn de- 
pends upon the operator's self-confidence and 
jpower of concentration ; — in all this, of course, 
vre are assuming that the patient has been ren- 
dered passive and receptive. 

The limitation of the suggestionist method 
consists in leaving too much of the work to the 
patient ; in making the treatment largely a mat- 
ter of (Z-MZ^c-suggestion. 

§ 4. We have seen what the limits of auto- 
suggestion are ; viz., a readjustment of the pa- 
tient's psychic forces ; not an infusion of new 
force from without. 

We have also seen that the Christian Science 
method is in the great majority of cases the same 
in principle. The healer, if he be faithful to 
Mrs. Eddy's teachings, tries to get the patient to 
do the work auto-suggestively / i. e.^ by constantly 
repeating, either mentally or verbally, some of 



216 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

the stock propositions of Eddjism ; as, for ex- 
ample, " My trouble is an error of mortal mind," 
— etc., etc. After a sufficient amount of mental 
concentration upon propositions such as these, 
the force, which they, as ideas, contain, becomes 
a controlling force to the extent of effecting the 
desired internal readjustment. 

And now what about the results of these sug- 
gestive methods ? 

The reports of Bernheim, Liebault, Wetter- 
strand, Schrenck-Kotzing, Quackenbos, and other 
world-famous medical suggestionists certainly 
show most remarkable cures. But observe : the 
cures of all serious cases have been gradual ; 
never instantaneous ; and the realm of organic 
diseases is absolutely untouched, save only a few 
organic diseases of the nervous system. 

The same characteristics are true of the un- 
questionably numerous and genuine Eddyite 
cures ; nothing of an organic nature beyond the 
nervous system ; no instantaneous cure of any 
serious malady ; no broken bones mended ; no 
severed members restored. 

It is true that Eddyite testimonials are not 
wanting which proclaim the cure of organic 
diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, etc. "We must 
remember, however, that many organic diseases 
may be arrested in their incipient stages by 
means other than the use of drugs or surgery, 
e, g., changes of climate, diet, hydropathy, etc., 
etc. "We cannot forget, nor, we surmise, has the 



Christ'' s Work of Healing. 217 

public forgotten how Mr. A. B. Purrington, 
author of the book, " Christian Science : An 
Exposition," challenged an eminent Eddyite 
lecturer to produce proofs of alleged cures of 
aggravated organic diseases concerning which 
that lecturer had boasted in his public talks ; how 
the latter first postponed his reply ; and finally, 
when brought to bay by Mr. Purrington, com- 
pletely evaded that honest enquirer's questions. 
All this was thoroughly aired in the columns of 
the ISTew York Sun. Mr. Purrington and the 
public are still waiting for the proofs. 

Remarkable, then, as the cures effected by 
suggestionists of both classes certainly are, they 
are after all decidedly limited in their scope. 

We cannot but feel that this limitation is due 
to the neglect of that factor which, as we shall 
show presently, Christ both recognized and 
utilized : viz., the projection from operator to 
patient of psychic or vital force. 

§ 5. That this force resides in man cannot be 
doubted in view of the evidence which lies 
entirely outside of New Testament sources. 

Take the experiments made by Sir Wm. 
Crookes and his colleagues with the medium 
D. D. Home in the alteration of weight of bodies. 
Again, at the risk of undue repetition we must 
get this before us. After describing the ap- 
paratus. Sir Wm. Crookes reports : " Mr. Home 
placed the tips of his fingers lightly on the ex- 
treme end of the mahogany board which was 



218 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

resting on the support, while Dr. A. B. and my- 
self sat one on each side of it, watching for any 
effect which might be produced. Almost im- 
mediately the pointer of the balance was seen to 
descend. After a few seconds it rose again. 
This movement was repeated several times, as if 
by successive waves of the psychic force. The 
end of the board was observed to oscillate slowly 
up and down during the experiment." (See 
pages Yl and 72.) 

Here we have a manifestation of a force, call 
it what you will, — psychic, vital, animic, 
magnetic, — v^hich emanated as an effluence from 
the person of D. D. Home and produced those 
dynamic results. 

Again, the following is an account of an ex- 
periment conducted by the London S. P. E. thus 
summarized by Dr. Hudson in his " Law of 
Psychic Phenomena " : 

"In an account of some experiments in 
mesmerism, written by Mr, Edmund Gurney, and 
recorded in Yol. II, pp. 201-205 of the Proceed- 
ings of the society referred to, a very interesting 
experiment is mentioned, which demonstrates the 
fact that there is an effluence emanating from 
the mesmerizer which is capable of producing 
very marked physical effects upon the subject. 
In this case the subject was blindfolded, and al- 
lowed to remain in his normal condition during 
the whole of the experiment. His hands were 
then spread out upon a table before him, his 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 219 

fingers wide apart. The mesmerizer then made 
passes over one of his fingers, taking care not to 
move his hand near enough to the subject's 
finger to cause a perceptible movement of the 
atmosphere, or to give any indication in any way 
which finger was being mesmerized. The result 
was, in every instance, the production of local 
anesthesia in the finger operated upon and in no 
other. 

" Oral suggestion, or any other form of 
physical suggestion, was here out of the ques- 
tion, and telepathic suggestion was extremely 
improbable, in view of the fact that the subject 
was in his normal condition, and consequently 
not in subjective rapport with the operator. A 
further experiment was then tried, with the view 
of ascertaining whether it was necessary for the 
mesmerist to know which finger he was operating 
upon. To that end, the operator's hand was 
guided by the hand of a third party while the 
passes were being made, and it was found that the 
selected finger was unaffected when the operator 
did not know which one it was. 

" The first of these experiments," Dr. Hudson 
concludes, " demonstrates the fact that there is 
an effluence emanating from the mesmerist ; and 
the second demonstrates the fact that this 
effluence is directed by his will." ^ 

Another experiment, even more conclusive 
than the foregoing, is that mentioned by the late 

' Law of Psychic Phenomena, p. 171. 



220 Christ^s Work of Healing. 

Dr. Paul Gibier in his " Psjchism." ^ A group 
of experimenters stand in a circle with fingers 
inverted over a vessel of water, at the same 
time trying to project their wills, as it were, into 
the water. Presently the fluid begins to boil 
and bubble, manifesting the effects of heat minus 
steam.^ In this experiment the object affected 
lacks the personal element, thus eliminating all 
possibility of suggestion, whether physical or 
telepathic. 

Jt is certain, then, that a jpsy chic force or efflu- 
ence exists, latent in every indimdual, and 
'potentially under the control of the will / in other 
words, intelligence is immanent in the force. 

§ 6. This experimentally demonstrated cer- 
tainty, we submit, amply justifies us in our fore- 
going assertion that if the psychic healer is to 
rise above the level and the limitations of the 
mere suggestionist, he must reckon with psychic 
force. 

A confident, strongly-concentrated will, which 
insures a certain degree of control over his 
psychic or vital forces forms the equipment of the 
psychic healer. 

§ 7. And what of the ideal psychic healer ? 

If we knew nothing whatever concerning 
the great Healer of Galilee, we still could draw 
this induction from modern psychic data : That 

^ Pp. 127-8. ' * The experiment of Horace Pelletier. ' ' 
'^ The magnetization of water is attested also by E. O. Mason, 
M. D. in his work on "Hypnotism," etc. 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. S^l 

the ideal psychic healer is one in whom confi- 
dence has been attained beyond the possibility of 
disturbance ; concentration beyond the reach of 
distraction ; and control over psychic force to 
its very farthest limits, whatever these may be. 

§ 8. And now let us address ourselves to the 
question, "What is required of the patient ? 

The answer is contained in that proposition, 
already twice recorded, which sums up the ob- 
servations of modern scientific investigators, 
That in psychic treatment cure is either retarded 
or defeated by lack of faith, on the part of the 
patient. Suggestionists of all schools — both 
" regular " and " irregular " recognize that 
doubts, hesitations, questionings, analyzings on 
the patient's part, block the way to his cure or 
relief. These must first of all be suppressed be- 
fore hope of cure or amelioration can be enter- 
tained. "We have seen that these competing 
ideas or " adverse suggestions " may be sup- 
pressed either by the induction of hypnosis or by 
the auto-suggestive method of reafiirmation. 

The ideal patient is he whose mind from the 
very beginning is free from adverse sugges- 
tions, 

"We have now before us, independently of all 
gospel data, the ideal psychic healer and the 
ideal patient. 

§ 9. Let us suppose that the ideal psychic 
healer becomes realized in the person of some 
man. Let us suppose that his reputation as 



222 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

such is established. A physically afflicted 
brother comes into his presence. He has heard 
of the healer's fame. He has friends who have 
been healed by him. Heretofore, that is, before 
this healer became known, the faith of his af- 
flicted brother was neither greater nor less than 
the average. But after hearing of the healer's 
fame it has become strengthened. When he 
meets a friend who has been healed by this great 
man that faith becomes stronger yet. Is it not 
reasonable to suppose that when he stands at last 
face to face with the healer himself, his last 
misgiving will vanish ? Even though no express 
record or proclamation of the patient's faith be 
adducible, the facts which we have mentioned 
are enough to justify the inference that faith on 
the patient's part exists. 

Again, it is conceivable that this ideal healer 
has made enemies ; that there are persons who 
traduce, slander and discredit him ; — for such is 
human nature. This being the case, it stands to 
reason that in those parts where these adverse 
influences are, so to speak, "in the air," the 
healer will be working under great disadvan- 
tages. Perfect faith will be to a greater or lesser 
extent undermined. It may be necessary in the 
case of some patients to take them aside from 
the leaven of these adverse influences, and even 
after their cure to charge them to keej? aloof. It is 
even conceivable that in such regions where 
these adverse influences are conspicuously pre- 



Chrisfs Work of Healing. 223 

dominant, all works on the part of the great 
psychic will be temporarily blocked. 

In short, the ideal psychic healer and wonder- 
worker, whoever he may be, will encounter cer- 
tain limitations and conditions, of which he 
must, as an adept, be aware ; and to which he 
must conform. 

There are two " threshold guardians " oppo- 
sing his proficiency ; and these he must overcome. 
The first resides in himself. He must first of all 
learn the secret of confidence and concentration; 
which secret being learned, he will have at his 
disposal that force which lies latent in himself 
and in all men. Next, he must overcome that 
" threshold guardian " of unfaith which holds in 
its clutches the whole human environment Avith 
the exception perhaps of a few elect souls. To 
do this he will first single out the elect souls, 
after which his progress will gather ever-increas- 
ing momentum. 

§ 10. Keep in mind then the two great factors 
in ideal psycho-therapeutics : the one is positive 
and the other is negative. The positive factor is 
psychic or vital force controlled by a confident 
and concentrated will. 

The negative factor is faith or receptivity on 
the part of the patient ; — the open, unquestion- 
ing, undoubting mind. Given these two factors 
in cooperation, and we may reasonably expect 
results compared with which the limited achieve- 
ments of modern suggestionists are trivial. 



S24 GhrisVs Work of Healing. 

§ 11. ISTow then, what do we find reported 
concerning the therapeutic works of the Naza- 
rene by the four evangelists ? Let us look first 
at certain statements which may serve to intro- 
duce us to a more detailed consideration further 
on ; and, for the sake of accuracy, we shall quote 
hereafter in the words of the Revised Version. 

Luke 6 : 19. " And all the multitude sought 
to touch him ; for jpower {duvaiM<i^ force) came 
from him and healed them all." 

Luke 8 : Ji.6. " Some one did touch me ; for 1 
perceived that power (duva/n?^ force) had gone 
forth from me." 

Luke 5 : 17. " And the jpower {^bvaixf.<i^ force) 
of the Lord was with him to heal." 

These three significant statements must detain 
us for a moment. They show us the picture of 
One who possesses the positive factor pertaining 
to the ideal psychic healer ; One whose control 
over psychic or vital force — a force whose exist- 
ence, remember, is a matter of modern scientific 
demonstration, — has advanced to such a degree 
as to enable Him to send forth from His person 
waves of vitality which heal the diseased organ- 
isms of those receptive ones who touch Him. 
There is pictured here One who possesses in ideal 
fulness that same force which, emanating from a 
modern medium, produces alterations of weight 
in bodies ; which, emanating from a modern 
mesmerist, produces local ansesthesia in a " sub- 
ject " ; which, emanating from a circle of modern 



Chrisfs Work of Healing. 225 

experimenters causes water to boil and bubble. 
The difference, so far as the nature of the force 
and its effects are concerned, is one of degree 
and not of kind. It is only by a moral compari- 
son that a difference in kind appears. But so far 
as positive psychic conditions are concerned, all 
the cases are identical. 

The statements which we have cited imply 
XhdX physical contact between patient and healer 
was recognized as a channel through which the 
vital force was communicated. This accords 
with the Crookes experiment and the Gurney ex- 
periment. In the case of the Gibier, or more 
properly, the Horace Pelletier experiment, pro- 
pinquity without actual contact sufficed ; " All 
the multitude sought to touch him ; for power 
came forth from him " — etc. " Some one did 
touch me ; for I perceived that power had gone 
forth from me." 

"We shall see that out of the fifteen detailed 
accounts in the gospel of the direct healing of 
physical infirmities eleven (11) show the employ- 
ment of physical contact or touch in various 
forms ; sometimes through the laying on of 
hands, sometimes by anointing with saliva and 
clay, and sometimes by grasping or laying hold 
of the patient. 

In the remaining three cases propinquity 
suifices. In two additional cases we shall see 
distant or absent healing. 

S 12. In Luke 5 : 17 this force is called " the 



226 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

power of the Lord." That this cannot validly 
be taken as a text to prove that Jesus is repre- 
sented as healing in His divine capacity is evi- 
dent when we consider that His disciples healed 
also through the laying on of hands and in re- 
sponse to faith on the patient's part, (See chap- 
ter iii, Part III.) Moreover, according to Christ's 
assertion, the disciples were to be able to do even 
greater works than He Himself had done (John 
14 : 12). What else can this text (Luke 5:17) mean 
than that Jesus was en rajfport with the Source of 
all forces, even as all men like unto Him can be ? 

It is elsewhere recorded that " He whom God 
hath sent speaketh the words of God, for he 
giveth not the Spirit by measure " (John 3 : 34). 

So much by way of general indication that, 
according to the evangelists, Jesus recognized 
and utilized that positive condition known to 
moderns as psychic or vital force. 

§ 13. That He also recognized the negative 
condition of faith as a necessary factor must be 
obvious to the most superficial reader of the gos- 
pel story. 

First, He recognized it in the positive form of 
confidence as part of the needful equipment of 
the healer. 

Matthew 17 : 19. " Then came the disciples of 
Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it 
out ? " They had Just tried to cast out a devil 
and had failed. Jesus' reply was: (v. 20) "Be- 
cause of 3'^our little faith." 



GhrisVa Work of Healing. 221 

Secondly, He recognized the necessity, or, at 
the very least, the great helpfulness of faith on 
the patienfs part in the negative form of a mind 
free from questioning, hesitation, or " adverse 
suggestion." 

Instances of this recognition may be found 
upon nearly every page of the gospel-narrative. 
" Thy faith hath made thee whole," He said to 
the woman with issue of blood who had touched 
the hem of His raiment in the throng and h id 
thereby received that effusion of vital force 
which had been the positive factor of her in- 
stantaneous cure. In these words the Master 
seems to recognize that the receptivity of faith 
formed the condition whereby the outflowing 
force had been enabled to enter within her 
organism. 

Thirdly, in one case, according to the state- 
ment of one evangelist, (St. Mark) the adverse 
influence of unfaith in a certain environment 
Eictuallj prevented^ Jesus from exercising some of 

^ The Master's recognition of receptive faith as a negative con- 
dition is thus expressed in the conservative work, * ' The 
Miraculous Elements in the Gospels ' ' by the Rev. A. B. Bruce, 
D.D. : "According to the records our Lord vrrought cures 
chiefly, if not exclusively, vphere there prevailed a mood of be- 
lieving recipiency. . . . He does not seem to have been at 
all exacting as to the degree of faith, or to have given any 
narrow theological definition of the kind of faith requisite. A 
little faith apparently sufiiced. ... It was not necessary 
that it should express itself by act or word ; it was enough if 
there appeared in the eye or in any feature the slightest sign of 
an expectant or recipient mood ; and it may be assumed that 



228 Christ's Work of Healing. 

His superphysical powers. St. Mark's somewhat 
blunt statement is this : (6:5 b) " And He could 
there do no migTity worh^ Literally translating 
the Greek, we have : " He was not ahle {obk 'sdbvaro) 
there to do smy power {or f or ce^dhva/iti). The 
evangelist adds : (v. 5), " Save that he laid His 
hands upon a few sick folk and healed them ; " 
as though referring to the cure of some minor 
ailments among simple and trustful souls who 
were ue contaminated by the prevailing skepti- 
cism. St. Mark concludes (v. 6), " And he 
marvelled lecause of their unhelief.''^ 
'^ St. Matthew's statement bearing upon this 
incident is this : (13 : 58), " And He did not many 
mJghty works {powers) there because of their 
unbelief." 

The significance of these statements is most 
telling against that view of Christ's superphysical 
works which would regard them as sheer mir- 
acles, — suspensions of cosmic law, — performed by 
a divine fiat irrespective of conditions or limita- 
tions. Such a view is here exhibited as a man- 
made tradition unwarranted by " the law and the 
testimony." 

§ 14. We believe that gospel data make it 

faith to this extent at least existed when no mention is made of 
the faith of the parties benefited .... Wliere that quality 
(recipient faith) was wholly lacking He did not manifest His 
power. It was not that He would not, but that He was not 
able. (Here Mark 6:5., is cited.) ... A cold critical 
temper paralyzed the mighty arm." — p. 263. 



Chrisfs Work of Healing. 229 

clear that Jesus performed His works according 
to well-defined conditions ; and that these con- 
ditions were : As regards the healer : unshahen 
confidence (Matt. 17 : 19, 20), and the jprojection 
of jpsycJdc or vital force ; (Luke 6 : 19 and 8 : 46). 
And, as regards Xh^ patient: they were receptive 
faith on his part ; (Matt. 9 : 22, and a score of 
similar passages) ; that the healing force was 
communicated in most cases by contact y in a few 
cases by propinquity ; in two cases (to be ex- 
amined presently) over a considerable distance ; 
that in one instance the ahsence of receptive faith 
blocked the way to the performance of any 
notable superphysical works (Mark 6:5; Matt. 
13 : 58). 

It is obvious that if the evangelists were mere 
marvel- mongerers, they would not have reported 
their Hero as limited by well-defined conditions. 
From the data thus far examined we see the 
gospel-story glowing with the light of circum- 
stantial truth. We see depicted therein hy men 
who were scientifically ignorant the doings of a 
Man who evinces a knowledge of psychic con- 
ditions which modern science has just discovered. 
Gospel veracity and in errant psychic insight on 
Jesus' part are beginning to come into view. 

§ 15. Wow let us look more in detail into the 
therapeutic works reported of the Nazarene. 

For convenience' sake we divide them into the 
following classes : 

/. Direct healing of physical infi/rmities. 



230 ChrisVs Work of Healing. 

II. Distant healing of jphysioal infirmities. 

III. Sealing of the sjpiritual infirmity of 
demonic jpossession. 

lY. liaising of the dead. 

These we shall consider in the order named. 

§ 16. Class I. Direct healing of 2yhysical in- 
firmities. 

Sub-Glass A. Gases wherein hath psychic or 
vital force through contact and declaration of 
faith on patient s part are specified in the record. 

For these cases we think it will suffice to sub- 
join a table of references without comment : 

Gase 1. Two blind men healed. Matt. 9 : 
27-31. 

Gase '2. A leper cleansed. Matt. 8:2, 3 ; 
Mark 1 : 40-42 ; Luke 5 : 12, 13. 

Gase 3. "Woman with issue of blood. Matt. 
9 : 20-22 ; Mark 5 : 25-29 ; Luke 8 : 43-48. 

Gase If.. Blind Bartim^us. Matt. 20:30-34; 
Mark 10 : 45-52 ; Luke 18 : 35-43. 

Sub- Glass B. Gases wherein psychic or vital 
Force through contact is alone specified; but 
Faith on the patients part is fairly inferable. 

These we shall have to examine more in detail. 

Gase 1. Deaf and Dumb Man Healed. MarTc 
7 : 31-37. Faith on patient's part inferable from 
the fact that he suffered himself to be brought 
to Jesus by those who had heard of the Master's 
fame and who undoubtedly had informed their 
afflicted friend thereof. Contact specified in v. 
33b. 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 231 

Case 2. The Blind Man of Bethsaida. Mark 
8 : 22-26. Faith on patient's part inferable on 
same grounds as specified in preceding case. 
Contact specified in vs. 23 and 25 : by anointing 
with saliva and the laying on of hands. 

Case 3. "Woman Bowed with Infirmity. Luke 
13 : 11-13. Faith inferable from the fact that 
this woman was among those in the synagogue 
where Jesas was teaching (v. 10). She was not 
of the Pharisees, who scoffed, but of the common 
people " who heard him gladly." It is, therefore, 
presumable that she believed in Him. 

" When Jesus saw her, he called her to him " 
(v. 12a). That she obeyed His call is evidenced 
by His continuing to speak to her in the 

Therapeutic Sentence : " Woman, thou art 
loosed from thine infirmity " (v. 12b). In this 
Jesus recognized that by her faith the way to her 
cure was opened. It only remained that the 
healing force should now flow in through the 
open gate, l^ote, then, what follows : 

Manual contact : " and he laid his hands on 
her " (v. 13a). Through this contact the healing 
psychic force flows in with the 

Kesult : " that immediately she was made 
straight and glorified God " (v. 13b). 

Case If,. The Man with Dropsy. LuTte 14 : 
1-4. The patient's faith is inferable from the 
fact that the man had evidently entered the 
Pharisee's house (where the cure was performed) 
in order to be " before " — i. e., in the ^presence of 



232 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

Jesus (see v. 2) of whose therapeutic powers both 
he and the Pharisees were aware. The Master's 
question previous to the healing ; " Is it lawful to 
heal on the Sabbath clay ? " would inevitably 
make the man aware of Jesus' intentions towards 
him. It is recorded that Jesus " took him and 
healed him." Here we have contact by grasping 
or laying hold, as the verb lambano makes 
obvious. 

Case 5. The Ear of Malchus. Luke 22 : 50, 51. 
Malchus' belief in Jesus' superphysical power 
was inevitable in view of the phenomenon that 
had just occurred when the officers w^ere about to 
seize Jesus ; viz., " When therefore he said unto 
them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to 
the ground " {John 28 : 6). Contact thus speci- 
fied : " And he touched his ear and healed him " 
(Luke 22 : 51). 

Case 6. The Man Born Blind. John 9 : 1-7. 
Faith of patient inferable from the latter's prompt 
and unquestioning obedience of Jesus' command : 
" Go wash in the pool of Siloam." 

Contact specified as performed through anoint- 
ing the patient's eyes with saliva and clay. The 
force thus infused took effect when the man had 
complied with Jesus' command.' 

Case 7. Peter's Mother-in-law. Matt. 8 : 14- 
15 ; Marh 1 : 30, 31 ; Luke 4 : 38, 39. 

Her faith is inferable from the fact of her re- 
lationship to Jesus' leading disciple. 

1 See pp. 274, 275. 



ChrisVs Work of Healing. 233 

Contact specified by St. Matthew : " He 
touched her hand." 

Case 8. The Palsied Man. Matt. 9: 2-7; 
Mark 2 : 3-12 ; Luke 5 : 18-25. 

" And Jesus seeing their faith " y — i. e., He 
saw the faith of the patient as well as of His 
friends, who, to get into the Master's presence, 
tore off the tilings from the roof of the house 
and let down the patient upon his bed into the 
room where Jesus stood. 

The employment of psychic or vital force in 
this case is made certain by the general state- 
ment in Luke immediately preceding his account 
of this case ; viz. (v. 17), " And the power 
{fo7xe) of the Lord was with him to heal." In 
this case the force was communicated hj propin- 
quity, not by contact. 

§ 17. Sub-Class C A Case in which Faith 
alone is specified in the Record : 

Yiz., That of the ten lepers who were cleansed : 
Luke 17: 11-19. Thus: "Jesus, Master, have 
mercy on us" (v. 13). Y. 14: "He said unto 
them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And 
it came to pass, as they Avent, they were 
cleansed." 

Here the outgoing healing force {LuTce 6:19 
and 8 : 46) proceeds telekinetically, i. e., without 
contact, and over a considerable distance. As 
Luke 6 : 19 stands as a general statement, viz., 
that Jesus is characterized by an emanating force 
which goes forth in response to faith, the burden 



234 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

of tlie proof in this case, as in all cases wherein 
no emanation is specified, rests upon those who 
deny its operation. 

§ 18. Suh' Class D. Cases in which neither 
Force nor Faith is specified in the Record. 

Case 1. The Impotent Man at Bethesda. 
John 5 : 1-9. The patient had an unwavering 
belief that he could be made whole, if only some 
man could cast him into the water when first the 
pool was troubled. Our observations respecting 
the projection of force which we made under 
Sub-Class C apply here. 

Case 2. The Man with Withered Hand. 
Matt. 12 : 10-13 ; Marl 3 : 1-5 ; Ltike 6 : 6-10. 

This man was among those in the synagogue 
who heard Jesus gladly. He manifested his 
faith by promptly obeying Jesus' Word, " Stretch 
forth thine hand " (Sts. Marh and Luhe). 

Through the outstretched hand in close pro- 
pinquity to the healer the vital force entered. 
(See observations under Sub-Class C.) 

§ 19. Class II. Distant Sealing of Phys- 
ical Infirimities. 

We may observe that modern cases of distant 
or absent healing are numerous. The Eddyites 
have many unquestionably genuine cases of this 
class on record. Dr. T. J. Hudson, author of 
" The Law of Psychic Phenomena," states in 
that work (p. 192) that he himself is prepared to 
produce proofs of over one hundred cures by 
distant healing wherein he was the agent. In 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 235 

speaking of these cases the author draws atten- 
tion to the fact that when the patient is unaware 
of the treatment, his mind will be free from re- 
sisting any adverse suggestions ; hence in a fa- 
vorable condition for receiving distant psychic 
treatment. We may add that if ihe patient he 
aware of the fact that he is to be thus treated, 
and has full confidence in the healer, conditions 
will be equally favorable. 

In the gospels there are recorded two cases of 
the distant healing of physical infirmities ; to wit : 

Case 1. The Centurion's Palsied Servant. 
Matt. 8 : 5-13 ; Lxike 7 : Y-10. 

It seems probable that the afflicted man was 
apprised by his benevolent master of the latter's 
errand to the great Healer whose name was upon 
every tongue throughout that region. In that 
case the patient would have both hope and faith. 
If, however, he was unaware of his master's 
errand, conditions would still be favorable ac- 
cording to our observations above. 

iJ^'ow be it noted, the patient was not healed 
until persons had come from his presence into 
the presence of Jesus. St. Matthew tells us 
that the centurion himself did the errand; St. 
Luke says that it was done by friends. In 
either case psychic connection is established be- 
tween the aura of the patient and that of Jesus 
by means of the messenger or messengers. 
Through this connection psychic force could be 
projected. (See Part II, Chapter IV, § 16.) 



236 ChrisVs Work of Healing. 

These observations apply with equal perti- 
nence to : 

Case 2. The Nobleman's Son. John 4 : 46-54. 

We may leave this class of cures with the fol- 
lowing propositions to be considered : 

(1) The projection of psychic force resulting 
in marked dynamic effects is a modern fact. 

(2) Distant healing is a modern fact. 

(3) Jesus' perfect control over psychic force 
is a demonstrated fact. 

We leave it to the reader to apply these prop- 
ositions to the two recorded cases of distant 
healing. 

§ 20. Class III. Healing of the Spiritual 
Infirmity of Demonic Possession. 

Here we are brought into an entirely different 
field from that in which we have been exploring. 
In fact, we are thrown headlong into the much 
controverted question of spirit-communication. 
For a more detailed treatment of the question in 
its bearing upon demonic possession we must re- 
fer the reader to Ajpjpendix B. Suffice it to say 
here that after the most careful study of the best 
modern evidences as to the possibility of com- 
munication between the incarnate and the dis- 
carnate, we are forced to the conclusion that such 
communication is not only possible, htct certain. 
We affirm this conclusion, thoroughly mindful of 
the fact that in the most critical modern cases, 
where telepathy, both direct and indirect, is ex- 
cluded, independent clairvoyance tnay be the ex- 



Christ's Work of Healing. 237 

planation. However, we cannot escape from the 
feeling that this is a very strained, desperate and 
highly improbable explanation. 

The reader may surmise that those "critical 
cases " to which we have reference are the 
phenomena of supernormally acquired informa- 
tion reported by Professor Hyslop and Dr. Hodg- 
son of the famous medium, Mrs. Piper. In ad- 
dition to these we have in mind a few cases 
of alleged spirit-communicators, both through 
mediumistic " control " and in materialized 
form, which have reported themselves as indi- 
viduals who have lived several generations be- 
fore the birth of either medium or sitters, and 
have referred to obscure records and other data, 
through which, incidents affirmed by them to 
have happened in their alleged earth-lives, have 
by the members of the circle been subsequently 
verified. Neither the individuals whose identity 
in such cases was in question, nor the records re- 
ferred to, have been known either to medium or 
members of the circle. Such cases go to corrob- 
orate the phenomena of the famous Piper Case ; 
and to a candid judgment not only preclude all 
sorts of telepathy, but strain independent clair- 
voyance to the breaking-point. To all practical 
purposes they prove the actuality of communica- 
tion between the incarnate and the discarnate. 

They prove that 7nediu7nistic obsession is a 
fact ', and justify the following propositions : 

(1) The " control " of mediums by communi- 



238 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

eating spirits is a form of " obsession " or " pos- 
session." 

(2) This phenomenon, with rare exceptions, 
happens only to persons of a peculiar tempera- 
ment or organization ; one which is either consti- 
tutional, or else developed by special cultivation. 

(3) Persons having such temperaments or or- 
ganizations, either by birth or cultivation, are 
commonly called mediums. 

(4) The persons reported in the gospels as 
obsessed by evil spirits were born mediums. 

(5) Their manifestations of mediumship were 
beyond the control of their wills. 

(6) The casting out or exorcising of these con- 
trolling spirits was accomplished through the act 
of a will more potent than that of the obsess- 
ing spirits. 

It was Christ's perfectly developed power of 
confident concentration carrying with it an ideal 
control over psychic force which enabled Him to 
" have power over unclean spirits." It was lack 
of such development that caused the failure of 
the disciples in one recorded instance to cast out 
an obsessing spirit. 

" Why could we not cast it out ? " they asked. 

Jesus answered, " Because of your little faith " 
(Matt. 17 : 19, 20). 

There is nothing in the recorded fact of de- 
monic possession which is not of modern occur- 
rence. 

There is nothing in the recorded control by the 



Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 239 

powerful will of Jesus over the obsessing intel- 
ligences which is irrational in the light of modern 
data. If a strong incarnate will can control a 
receptive incarnate will to the extent of inducing 
involuntary hypnosis, it is conceivable that a 
mighty incarnate will can control a receptive 
discarnate will to the extent of compelling the 
latter to do the former's bidding. 

§ 21. Class IV. Baising of the Dead. 

To say that there are no modern instances of 
this would of course be trite. The gospels, 
however, record three cases in which Jesus called 
back the departed spirit to its vacated tenement 
house. That " silver cord " which binds the 
psychic body to the physical organism had in each 
case been sundered. 

The first point that impresses us in these re- 
corded instances is this : In no case had irrepa- 
rahle disintegration of the physical organism set 
m. The abandoned tenement houses were still 
standing. This fact makes the return of the de- 
parted spirits to their former earthly tabernacles 
a phenomenon y««r less ivonderful than is the ivell- 
accredited modern phenomenon of spirit-mate- 
rialization. (See p. 74.) 

Consider this for a moment. 

Whether so-called spirit-materialization be by 
mundane psychic agency or by that of discarnate 
spirits, the fact is clear that the materialized 
form, possessing as it does in some cases all the 
characteristics of a flesh-and -blood person, has 



240 Christ's Work of Healing. 

been in the twinkling of an eye literally built up 
of material particles gathered — whence ? The 
answer baffles the acutest scientist ; but the yact 
is beyond dispute. 

In the return of a departed spirit to its recently 
abandoned tabernacle there would be no mate- 
rialization ; no building up of structure de novo ; 
— we might almost say ex nihilo. Such a phe- 
nomenon, assuming its possibility, would be only 
a special case of spirit-return ; and spirit-return is 
a demonstrated facto The only element in such 
a phenomenon that is in anywise akin to mate- 
rialization would be the reestablishment of that 
which in a figure may be called "the silver 
cord " ; — that psychic or etheric stream which, 
in cases of " astral flight " or the " projections of 
the double," still binds the spirit to the flesh. 
From the mere standpoint of marvel the accom- 
plishment of this by one possessing sufficient 
control over psychic force is assuredly much less 
wonderful than is the production of that well- 
attested stupendous phenomenon known as spirit- 
niaterialization. 

In considering the cases of the raising of the 
dead recorded in the gospel, we start with these 
established facts : 

(1) Spirit-return through mediumship. 

(2) The existence of psychic force in man. 

(3) The control over psychic force by the 
human will. 

The first named of the above facts — spirit- 



ChrisVs Work of Healing. 241 

return through mediumship — carries with it the 
standing jyossibility of communion hetween the in- 
carnate and the discarnate by means of telej^athy. 

The cases in. the gospel under present consid- 
eration fall within the scope of possibility under 
the following conditions : Given, a man who 
possesses a high degree of control over psychic 
force, and a telepathic sensitiveness of the keenest 
nature ; and we would expect him to be able to 
perceive and call to him departed spirits, and to 
supply to them that psychic connection with their 
former physical tabernacles which was sundered 
in that flight called " death." 

To accomplish any such phenomenon, however, 
he would — so a priori considerations lead us to 
believe — be particular to establish first the most 
favorable conditions ; — conditions best conducive 
to complete control over psychic force and to 
telepathic communication. 

Let us now turn to the gospel cases : — first, 
that of the raising of Jairus' daughter.' 

As to this case, we can add nothing to the 
masterly presentation thereof given by Dr. 
Hudson in chapter xiii of his " Law of Psychic 
Phenomena." 

The main point to be noted is that Jesus first 
of all caused the sheptical scoffers to he removed 
from the house, allowing only the parents of the 
deceased, and His own three most intimate 
disciples, Peter, James and John to remain 

1 Matt. 9 : 23-25 : Mark 5 : 38-42 ; Luke 8 : 43-48. 



242 GhrisVs Work of Healing. 

within. In this atmosphere, charged, so to 
speak, with confidence, He called the maid back 
to life. Here certainly the Master continues to 
recognize the same condition as that which He 
utilized in the healing of disease. 

As to the raising of Lazarus : ^ (1) Martha ex- 
hibits her faith by saying, " Lord, if thou hadst 
been here, my brother had not died." (2) Jesus 
tested her faith in the sentence concluding, 
"Whosoever liveth and belie veth in me shall 
never die. Believest thou this ? " To which she 
replied, "Yea, Lord." (3) The witnesses were 
not in a mental condition of skeptical hostility 
but followed Jesus' movements with reverential 
awe and expectancy. They believed at least 
that this man who opened the eyes of the blind 
could have caused that even Lazarus had not 
died. (4) At Martha's demurrer, spoken before 
the mouth of the sepulchre, that the corpse was 
nearing the state of decomposition, (having been 
dead four days) Jesus uttered these significant 
words to raise her faith to the highest point : 
" Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst he- 
Ueve, thou shouldst see the glory of God ? " 
Then followed the raising of the dead, condi- 
tioned apparently by the combined faith of 
Jesus, Martha and Mary, and effected presum- 
ably by Jesus' psychic force unhampered by the 
restraint of adverse suggestion. 

In the case of the widow's son^ every condi- 

1 John 11 : 1-44. ^ ittA;e 7 : 11-15. 



Chrisfs Work of Healing. 243 

tion appears favorable. The mother and pall- 
bearers stand in silent respect as the Master 
calmly advances ; stills the weeping widow, and 
places His hand in contact — that same vitalizing 
contact which we have witnessed in so many 
cases — with the bier upon which the recently 
deserted tabernacle of clay reposed. 

§ 22. Before concluding our examination of 
Christ's therapeutic works, we must note a class 
of incidents connected with many cures ; incidents 
which bear further testimony to Jesus' insight 
into psychic conditions. We refer to those 
cautions and charges which He so frequently 
issued to cured patients, as " See thou tell no 
man." 

Dr. Hudson, in his book above referred to, 
rightly, we think, estimates these as Post-thera- 
peutic cautions. 

Faith on the patient's part is recognized by the 
Master as a necessary condition of cure. This 
being so, a possible infection of the patient with 
the leaven of skepticism subsequent to his cure 
might work physical injury ; — not necessarily a 
relapse, but a condition of debilitation. These 
cautions would be calculated to close all avenues 
of counter or adverse suggestions of evil-minded 
gossips. On examining various instances in 
which these cautions were given, we find in the 
context no apparent reason why they should 
have been given. The only possible reason that 
might be adduced is that Jesus was desirous of 



244 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

concealing His therapeutic powers from the peo- 
ple. But in every instance that we look into we 
find that no such explanation will stand. Every 
" Caution case " is preceded by a series of public 
cures which of course preclude the possibility of 
Jesus' powers being a secret in that particular 
community. 

Dr. Hudson's explanation is the only one 
which really explains why these cautions were 
issued. This is a most significant and telling 
proof, in addition to others which we have ad- 
duced, of Jesus' profound insight into psychic 
conditions ; as well as of evangelical veracity. 
The evangelists fail to tell us why Jesus issued 
these injunctions. This is singular, to say the 
least. But as we read their context, the convic- 
tion grows upon us that the reason of their 
failure to explain was because ihey did not knovj 
the explanation. 

They were faithfully recording facts as they ob- 
served them. 

§ 23. Closely akin to these post-therapeutic 
cautions are those aids and stimulants to recep- 
tive faith which the Master in several recorded 
instances gives to His patients. For example, in 
the case of the two blind men (Matt. 9 : 27 f.) the 
afllicted ones manifest their faith in the request, 
" Thou Son of David, have mercy on us." Jesus, 
as it were, stimulated their faith by asking them, 
" Believe ye that I am able to do this ? " to which 
they reply, " Yea, Lord." This seems to open 



Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 245 

wide that inner door through which the emana- 
ting vital force enters, as the Master utters the 
therapeutic sentence, " According to your faith, 
be it unto you." In such aids and stimulants to 
faith Jesus evinces that insight into the suggest- 
ive phase of psycho-therapeutics which is pos- 
sessed by the skilled modern suggestionist. 

§ 24. What now, are we entitled to say, is 
shown by Christ's reported works of healing ? 

"We are entitled to affirm : 

(1) That the reports show that He understood 
and utilized the same psychic conditions as those 
which modern psycho-therapeutists acknowledge, 
and to a limited extent utilize, viz. : 

(a) The negative condition of faith on the 
part of the patient free from all adverse sugges- 
tion ; either that which may arise from the 
questionings, hesitations, analyzings, etc., of the 
patient's own mind ; or that which may be com- 
municated to the latter's mind by others, whether 
orally or by telepathy. 

(b) The positive condition of psychic force 
on the part of the healer, which emanates from 
the latter and enters the patient through the 
door opened by faith, and is itself controlled by 
thsit positive form of faith called confidence. 

(2) The recording of these things — this keen 
insight on Jesus' part into psychic conditions of 
which that age and all succeeding ages down to 
recent years were ignorant — is overwhelming 
proof that the recorders were relating facts; 



246 Chrid^s Work of Healing. 

facts which they witnessed, though they did not 
understand them. In other words, the recording 
of these things is proof positive of the veracity 
of the evangelical narrative. 

(3) It is ajpparent that the Man of Wazareth, 
hy His insight into jpsyohio conditions thxis inani- 
fested Ti,new scientifically the laws and nature of 
all psychic phenomena, and coidd speah with in- 
errant authority upon things spiritual. 



Postscriptum. 

"We are compelled to break in upon the con- 
tinuity of Part III with some new evidence 
properly belonging to chapter ii of Part 11. 
"We failed to get hold of it until January, 1902, 
while this present chapter was in the proof- 
reading stage. One justification for its insertion 
here is because it completes the verification of 
Christ's instantaneous healing of diseases, organic 
and functional, by the projection of psychic force 
in response to receptive faith. 

The evidence which we are about to cite fairly 
startles us in its remarkable confirmation of our 
reasoning in §§ Y, 9 and 10, respecting the Ideal 
psychic healer. But any pleasure which we may 
feel on this account is overbalanced by the 
chagrin to which we must confess for having 
almost missed in our researches by all odds the 



Christ^s Work of Healing. 247 

most tremendous series of psychic phenomena in 
modern times. We gratefully acknowledge our 
indebtedness to our esteemed friend, Fred L. H. 
"Willis, M. D., of Kochester, N. Y., for bringing 
this evidence to our notice. 

The evidence to which we refer is bound up 
with the life and deeds of the world's greatest 
healer, (so far as we know), since the Apostolic 
Age. This is the late James Rogers Newton • of 
whom Dr. Willis was one of many personal friends. 

We have just examined the testimony to Dr. 
^Newton's achievements ?n psychic healing. It 
is contained in the book entitled " The l^ew 
Bethesda," edited by A. E. Newton. This work 
is for the most part a collection of affidavits 
sworn to before Justices of the Peace by healed 
patients of Dr. E^ewton, together with repertorial 
and editorial accounts of the healer's achieve- 
ments contained in reputable journals of the 
country. 

In every affidavit it is deposed that the speci- 
fied disease has been pronounced to be such by 
one or more regular physicians; and that the 
latter's treatment has done little or nothing to 
bring relief. In fine, each case seems to have 
exhausted all the resources of materia medica. 

We shall first submit a list of the diseases 
reported in the affidavits and reputable journals 
as cured hj Dr. Newton's treatment, after which 
we shall address ourselves to the latter's thera- 
peutic method. 



248 Chrisfs Work of Healing. 

Diseases cured as jper ajfidamts. 

(1) Abscess of knee with enlargement of knee- 
joint, 13 years' standing ; (2) asthma, several years ; 
(3) ankle sprained, fractured leg, effects of, 11 
weeks ; (4) asthma, 40 years ; (5) blindness, total, 
2 years, 3 months ; (6) blindness, partial, 22 
years ; (Y) consumption, cured 1860 ; affidavit 
'sworn, 1863 ; (8) cancer on cheek, cancerous con- 
ditions for 11 years ; (9) dropsy, with tetter on 
head, spinal disease and internal weakness, 2 
years ; (10) dropsy, 7 months ; (11) diarrhoea, 
chronic, many years ; (12) dyspepsia, with liver 
complaint and female weakness, IT years ; (13) 
dyspepsia, with weakness of heart and liver com- 
plaint, 2 years ; (14) diabetes, 1 years ; (15) eyes, 
weakness of; (16) eyes inflamed, dark room, Y 
months ; (17) erysipelas, with ulcer on leg, 13 
years ; (18) epilepsy, fits, 2 years ; (19) foot, life- 
less through injury to hip, 1 year; (20) fistula; 
(21) gall stones, diseased kidneys, liver complaint, 
10 years ; (22) hip-joint, dislocation of, 5 months ; 
(23) hip disease, 7 years ; (24) hand, constant pain 
in, effects of bruise, 10 years ; (25) humors in leg, 
30 years ; (26) inflammation of bowels, chronic, 
terminating in ovarian tumor, 3 years ; (27) 
insanity ; (28) jaw, stiffness of, from calomel 
doses, 5 years ; (29) knee, drawn up and cal- 
loused, resulting from fracture, 6 years ; (30) 
kidney trouble with palsy, 1 year ; (31) lameness, 
with crutches, 20 years ; (32) voice, loss of, through 
weak lungs ; (33) nervous debility and palpitation 



Christ'' s Work of Heeding. 249 

of heart, 11 years ; (34) optic nerve, debility of, 3 
years ; (35) paralysis of side from infancy and of 
leg for 3 months ; (36) paralysis, vocal, with 
spinal trouble, 3^ years ; (3Y) paralysis, arms 
and legs with dementia; (38) prolapsus uteri, 16 
years ; (39) rheumatism, inflammatory, 2 years ; 
(40) rheumatism, inflammatory, 2 years ; (41) 
scrofula, scald-head, from childhood to maturity ; 
(42) sciatic neuralgia, 2 years ; (43) spinal disease, 
with complete helplessness ; (44) spinal curvature, 
" some time " ; (45) spinal disease, " many years " ; 
(46) spinal disease, helplessness, 13 years; (47) 
spinal affection, 11 ^ years ; (48) spinal affection, 
15 years ; (49) spinal trouble, 8 years ; hip disease, 
1 year ; (50) spinal disease, 2 years, 4 months ; 
(51) varicose veins with chronic rheumatism, 33 
years ; (52) walk, inability to, 19 years. 

Diseases cured as per local journals of Spring- 
field, Mass.^ latter part of March, 186 J/,. 

Blindness from birth, Dinexia S. Hawks, of 
Claremont, Mass. ; cancer, with great pain, Mrs. 
C. H. Fassaur, 13 Wilcox St., Springfield ; 
diphtheria, neuralgia and internal tumor, Mr. 
Thomas W. Wason, (car-builder), Springfield; 
" was permanently cured in thirty minutes, and 
walked about his grounds. . . . The tumor 
broke and discharged a gallon or more." 

Diseases cured as per eye-witness of Mr. Arthur 
Whitten, recorded in his book, " Notes of a Tour 
in America and Canada, May, June and July, 
1869." (Englishmen's Press, Calcutta.) 



250 GhrisVs Work of Healing. 

Cancer, contracted leg, deafness, distant heal- 
ing verified, insanity, loss of speech, paralysis, 
partial blindness, scrofula, tumor, varicose veins. 

Testimony of American Journals. 

1. New York Herald, July 3, 1861. 

"Our reporter saw several of these cases, 
(deafness), which to all appearances, were cured 
in from five to six minutes, as the patients when 
they entered could not hear a word, but went out 
hearing questions and answering them with com- 
parative ease and readiness." 

2. New Haven Courier., July 11, 1863. 

The reporter gives names and addresses of 
people cured of the following diseases : Ulcer on 
the leg ; bed-ridden invalid two years ; lame in 
spine and hip ; speechless for nine months ; lame, 
three years, cured instantly ; speechless for four 
years ; hip disease ; rheumatism of many years' 
standing. 

3. New Haven Times. (No date given, but 
probably July, 1863.) 

Reporter collected following cases, with 
names and addresses : Paralysis, lower part of 
body and legs ; bad vaccination ; heart disease, 
with loss of use of lower limbs ; chronic lameness ; 
stiff knee ; lameness of eight years ; organic dis- 
ease of heart, twenty years ; patient brought in 
on bed on which she had lain nine years, and cured. 

4. Hartford Times. (No date given.) 
Editorial comment: Cases of lameness and 

rheumatism. 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 251 

6. Rochester Democrat, Nov., 1864. 

Case of F. G. Lacy, of Scottsville, IST. Y., who 
came to Democrat oifice and reported cure of 
spinal disease of ten years' standing. — Cure 
effected in ten minutes. 

6. New York Tribune, May 14, 1860. 

Ten to fifteen persons cured of minor ailments ; 
about 100 of more serious afflictions, including 
one woman who was healed by touching the skirt 
of Dr. Newton's coat as his back was turned. 
"He instantly turned and said, 'AH right, 
madam, your faith has healed you.'" Many 
verbal testimonials of cures were given. 

Y. New York Despatch, Sept. 2, 1866. 

Reporter collected cases cured of: ulcer on 
breast ; chronic and inflammatory rheumatism ; 
contracted limbs ; weak lungs and cough, ten 
years ; dropsy ; partial blindness ; spinal diseases ; 
fever and ague ; congestive chills ; female weak- 
ness ; paralysis ; dementia ; almost total blind- 
ness ; heart disease ; total blindness. 

8. IJtica Olserver, Oct., 1866. (Editorial tes- 
timony.) 

" He (Dr. Newton) told of a cure which he ef- 
fected in Oswego several years ago, in the case 
of our friend Lord, of the New York Furniture 
Warehouse, and Mr. Lord, who was present en- 
dorsed the doctor's statement." 

This case, we may observe, is of peculiar inter- 
est. Mr. Lord, according to the editor of " The 
New Bethesda," went to Dr. Newton in Oswego 



252 ChrisVs Work of Healing. 

for tumor on the neck. Dr. Newton told the 
patient that he could not remove it instantly, but 
that in fifty-six days it would disappear. " Mr. 
Lord took his memorandum book and wrote: 
' Hocus pocus — Dr. Newton says in fifty -six days 
I shall be cured.' After receiving treatment, 
Mr. Lord went home. No change appeared until 
the fifty-second day when the tumor began to 
discharge, and on the fifty-sixth day it had en- 
tirely disappeared " (p. 129). 

9. Toledo Record. (No date given.) 
Editor's testimony to cure of woman afflicted 

with spinal disease of twenty-five years' stand- 
ing. 

10. Columbus Journal. (No date, probably 
Sept., 1868.) 

Editor's testimony of being eye-witness to 
cures of sore eyes, asthma, tumors, deafness. 

11. Miami Gazette, Waynesville, O. (No 
date, probably Sept., 1868.) 

Editor's testimony to Dr. Newton's cure of 
contracted leg and rheumatism. 

12. Salt Lake City Tribune, Oct., 1872. 

Reports case of man prostrated with excruci- 
ating pain in the head cured at a distance ; also 
case of acute pain and deafness. 

13. Providence Press. (Date not given, sum- 
mer of 186Y.) 

Reporter testifies to simultaneous cure of a 
large number of people in Pratt's Hall afflicted 
with light ailments. "He (Dr. Newton) then, 



Chrisfs Work of Healing. 253 

on the platform, put his hands together, drawing 
them towards his breast, then suddenly threw 
them outward and said, ' You are cured.' He 
then requested those whose pains were cured to 
sit down. All but one lady did so, and after one 
or two movements of his hands as before, she sat 
down, declaring herself relieved. A remarkable 
fact was observed as the doctor threw out 
his hands in the first instance. There was a 
sharp detonation, similar to the crack of a per- 
cussion cap when it is struck. It was distinctly 
heard by hundreds. The doctor told us last 
evening that it was the first occurrence of the 
kind in his practice." 

Following cases reported cured, — names given : 
lameness, seven years ; lameness, seventeen years ; 
partial paralysis, several years ; case of distant 
healing verified. 

14. Providence Press, April 26, 1867. 

Eeport of proceedings in Remington Hall. 

Cases : restoration of voice ; lameness ; partial 
paralysis. 

Other Testimony. 

1. H. T. Child, M. D., of Philadelphia, 634 
Race Street, testifies to having witnessed in Bos- 
ton, Oct., 1860, cure of over 100 persons with 
various forms of disease. Describes in detail one 
cure of paralysis in twenty minutes ; another of 
hip disease in a few minutes. 

2. Testimony of Mr. J. "W. England, then city 
editor of E'ew York Tribune and later of New 



254 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

York Sun, to cure of his wife from paralysis of 
lower limbs, four years' standing. This testi- 
mony Mr. Greeley of the Tribune refused to pub- 
lish, but it appeared over Mr. England's name in 
the !New York Sunday Courier, Mr. Jas. L. 
Smith, proprietor, the same year. 

3. Testimony of Rev. S. A. Davis, Hartford, 
Ct., in Hartford Evening Press, to cure of his 
daughter Minnie from spinal trouble affecting 
also eyes and use of legs. 

4. Testimony of Eev. Frederic Rowland 
Young, of Swindon, Eng., to his own cure by 
Dr. l^ewton of neuralgic affection of the head 
from which he had been suffering for eleven 
years. Reports witnessing cure of paralytic 
woman in five minutes ; also of young man 
whose left hand was withered, — cure instantane- 
ous. Mr. Young's testimony was published in 
the North Wilts Herald, Eng., Aug. 5th, 1868. 

5. Testimony of our personal friend, Fred L. 
H. Willis, M. D., Rochester, JST. Y., being an ac- 
count of what he saw in Pratt's Hall, Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

" At the close of his lecture my eyes witnessed 
a scene that beggars description." He then de- 
scribes what has already been cited from the 
Providence Press. (See testimony of American 
Journals, No. 13.) 

" Then he requested some of the worst chronic 
cases to come forward to the platform. And 
what a scene ensued : The blind, the lame, the 



ChrisVs Work of Healing. 255 

deaf, tlie palsied and those afflicted with, divers 
diseases came forward to be healed, and for an 
hour and a half he laid his hands on them and 
they were healed. I saw a cripple, a young man 
of about twenty years of age, who had not 
walked without crutches since he was three 
years old, who had never been able to go up and 
down steps without assistance in addition to his 
crutches, at the command of the doctor throw 
aside those crutches, walk back and forth across 
the stage, go down the steps and out of the hall, 
and I was told that he walked to his home, the 
distance of half a mile, without them." 

In verbally reporting this case to us a few days 
ago (Jan. 13, 1902), Dr. "Willis said that l^ewton 
caused the young man to be supported on his 
feet, took each hand in one of his own, gazed for 
a moment steadfastly into the patient's eyes, and 
then cried in a loud voice, " In the name of Christ 
I pronounce you cured." The cure was immedi- 
ate as above described. 

" I was on the platform," Dr. Willis' testimony 
continues, " close by the doctor all the time he 
was operating, and watched with professional 
interest the effect of his power. One man came 
up wearing a pair of goggles. Dr. Newton 
pulled them off, revealing a pair of the most in- 
tensely inflamed eyes I ever saw, and I have 
walked the wards of the hospitals of our large 
cities as a student, and spent hours in our eye 
infirmaries. The doctor placed his fingers upon 



^66 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

those eyes, and I actually saw the inflammation 
subside from them. Three times he placed his 
fingers upon them, uttering his words of power, 
' Be cured ' : and each time I could see the mar- 
velous effect. Finally, he who could not endure 
a ray of light upon his eyes when he entered the 
hall, turned and looked without blinking upon 
the large uncurtained window through which 
streamed the unimpeded light of heaven. 

" I saw several who were deaf healed of this 
infirmity so that they could hear a whisper. 
Hundreds were operated upon, and no case of 
failure was reported at the time. Several times in 
the throng the doctor felt himself touched. 
' Who touched me ? ' 'I, sir.' ' You are healed, 
pass right on. There is no necessity for my 
operating upon you again. You are healed, for 
I felt the poiver go out of me.'' " 

We think no further evidence need be cited. 
Doubtless many of the 250,000 or more healed 
by Dr. Newton in the sixties and seventies of the 
past century stand ready to bear their witness. 

We should observe that this healer had his 
goodly proportion of failures ; a fact which the 
editor of "The New Bethesda" makes no at- 
tempt to conceal. The claim made therein for 
Dr. Newton respecting failures is that each cure 
depended entirely upon psychic conditions. Dr. 
Newton always insisted that there must be faith 
either on his part or on the part of the patient. 
In many instances skepticism in the patient 



ChrisVs Work of Healing. 257 

thwarted him ; while, on the other hand, he 
would often succeed in maintaining his own con- 
fidence and effecting a cure in spite of the pa- 
tient's unbelief. 

As to his methods : They consisted usually in 
manual contact of some sort, fixed gaze, and a 
word of command. Sometimes, however, he 
would in the case of lighter ailments project his 
force from a distance ; say from the platform to 
those who stood up in the audience. 

In cases of distant healing, of which there 
were many, he would usually take the hands of 
the absent patient's friend, request him to con- 
centrate upon the patient, and then announce 
that the latter had received a vital shock which 
would bring cure. An astonishingly large num- 
ber of these instances were verified. Sometimes 
also Dr. ISTewton would send his patients " mag- 
netized " letters or handkerchiefs which they had 
mailed to him. 

The essential point to note is that Dr. ISTewton 
recognized and employed, according to his editor, 
the two main conditions employed and recognized 
by Christ : 

(1) A force or effluence which proceeded from 
his own person ; (2) concentrated confidence 
which he perceived to be strongest when the pa- 
tient was trustful, and, in many instances, en- 
tirely canceled when the patient was skeptical. 

Says Thomas R. Hazard of Yaucluse, R. I. : 

" When the last patient was dismissed the doc- 



258 Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 

tor stooped down and asked us to raise our hands 
as far above bis bead as we could. We did so 
and felt a current as strong as a tolerable blast 
from a bellows" (p. 161). 

Dr. Willis writes, '* The doctor drew bis bands 
up to bis chest and concentrating a power that 
seemed to fill bis whole being and flash from 
his eyes like sparks of fire, he threw this 
power down upon the audience three times " (p. 
167). 

It was on this occasion that the Providence 
Press reporter noted the detonation spoken of a 
moment ago. 

In a lecture delivered in Dodworth's Hall, 
New York City, May 13, 1860, Dr. Newton him- 
self said : 

" I feel and eliminate a shock, just as real and 
powerful as that produced by a galvanic battery. 
. . . In healing there must be faith on one 
side or the other. A healer should be a person 
of great faith ; a man who is true to himself ; a 
muscular man ; with a fixed, positive and deter- 
mined will. ... I can heal any one in this 
room just as well without touching as with {jf it 
is not an organic disease). Sometimes I must 
come in contact with the patient, and at others 
it can be done by will alone. If a person comes 
and says it will take nine operations for you to 
cure me, it will take nine ; but if he says, ' I will 
be cured by touching the hem of your garment,' 
it will be so. I have felt the influence pass from 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 259 

me by a simple touch, while the person was 
cured "(pp. 113-119). 

How, it may be asked, did James Eogers New- 
ton come by the knowledge of his methods ? 
" The New Bethesda " tells us that his gift began 
to display itself in boyhood. " At an early age," 
says the New York Literary ATbum in 1866, in 
an article entitled " Men of Mark," " he became 
aware of possessing the gift of healing, of which 
he has for the past few years given such wonder- 
ful evidence. He became conscious of new pow- 
ers, new capabilities, wondrous and strange, and 
opening a glorious avenue of usefulness, and his 
young enthusiastic spirit burned for the work. 
But meeting with no encouragement, this heaven- 
born gift was suffered to lie comparatively unde- 
veloped until later years. Although contrary 
to his inclinations, he entered upon pursuits less 
congenial to his tastes, and for twenty years was 
a prosperous merchant, during which time his 
gift was often manifested, but never exercised to 
any extent till the year 1858. . . . 

" He holds none of his powers in secret, but 
courts investigation of the scientific, and en- 
deavors to promulgate to the world his principles 
of cure, as well as to show how magnetism, the 
life-principle, or vital force, can be imparted by 
a positive will from a strong and healthy body to 
a sickly and weak one, producing an instanta- 
neous cure of the most chronic diseases. 

" The doctor disclaims any miraculous powers. 



260 ChrisVs Work of Healing. 

but declares the results he produces to be founded 
on philosophic and scientific principles which 
can, in a measure, be taught." 

It appears, then, that ll^ewton's gift was in- 
born ; (1 Cor. 12 : 9b), that he studied and re- 
flected upon it as he developed it bj exercise, 
doubtless correlating it with what he must 
have read on the subject of mesmerism and 
magnetism ; — this was before the literature of 
hypnotism and suggestive therapeutics had 
appeared. 

I^ewton himself writes in one of his letters: 
" My wJiole Tcnowledge of healing I gained from 
the New Testament teachings. When Jesus dis- 
covered the power, at the age of thirty years, His 
mission was healing the sick, and to this the re- 
mainder of His life was largely devoted. This 
power He promised to others in His memorable 
words : ' The works that I do ye shall do also ; 
and greater because I go to My Father.' . . . 
He also said, ' These signs shall follow them that 
believe,' etc. . . . The eyes of the spiritually 
blind are being unsealed, and in the light of the 
new truths now dawning on the earth, all must 
be led ere long to apply to their own lives and 
practice the long rejected teachings of Jesus ' " 
(" N"ew Bethesda," pp. 204, 205). 

We can see from I^ewton's numerous recogni- 
tions of the healing power proceeding from his 
person, and the emphasis which he also constantly 
placed upon receptive faith, that the gospels in- 



Ghrisfs Work of Healing. 261 

deed formed the chief source of his therapeutic 
knowledge. 

To him belongs the honor of being the first to 
declare as well as to demonstrate that the Man 
of JSTazareth perceived and used psychic condi- 
tions in His works of healing. The works and 
the methods of James Rogers Wewton stand as a 
scientific verification of the Master's therapeutic 
works and of gospel veracity. 

It is refreshing to know that this remarkable 
man towered above many of his fellow-psychics 
in his absolute freedom from commercialism. 
We are the last to dispute that the psychic spe- 
cialist in any field is, as a laborer, fully worthy 
of his hire. Still there seems to us to be a limit 
beyond which reasonable remuneration for these 
gifts savors of the sin of Gehazi. If present-day 
suggestionists, posing as prophets of new relig- 
ions, wallow in wealth from the proceeds of their 
copyrighted " inspired " books, souvenir spoons, 
etc., or become multi-millionaire landlords and 
bankers, and as founders of new sects, recipients 
of semi-divine honors, they have their reward we 
suppose here and now. Jamqs Rogers E'ewton 
had much to say about divine love, but what he 
said concerning it was nothing compared with 
his exemplification of it. 

" Out of all these patients," says the IS'ew 
York Herald of July 3, 1861, "he does not re- 
ceive payment but for about twenty out of one 
hundred. On the poor and needy he operates 



262 Christ^s Work of Healing. 

I 

without charge ; but others are expected to pay 
according to their means and position in life." 
Other quotations of similar purport from many 
otlier American Journals might be multiplied. 
In tances might be cited of his paying the trav- 
eli ig expenses of poor patients from their home 
to his office. Not even from the rich would he 
receive remuneration for distant healing. He 
felt that the use of his spiritual gift for worldly 
gain would weaken his power. So at least he ex- 
pressed himself. 

" Dr. Newton," writes the Rev. Frederic Row- 
land Young to the North Wilts (Eng.) Herald, 
"is an extremely simple-minded and most be- 
nevolent man, and gives himself none of the airs 
of the quack or charlatan. ... A very large 
majority of his cures are done by him without 
fee or reward of any kind. In my own case he 
steadily refused to receive any remuneration, al- 
though I offered him a hundred dollar bill, and I 
saw him act in like manner towards several other 
patients." 

" One of the most Christlike men I ever knew," 
is the tribute paid to him by Dr. F. L. H. "Willis 
in speaking of him to us. 

That he recognized himself not as the agent 
but the medium of divine power can perhaps be 
best illustrated in his therapeutic sentence spoken 
to the Rev. F. R. Young in his act of healing. 
Facing Mr. Young, taking him by the hands, and 
looking steadfastly upon him, he said : " Look at 



GhrisVs Work of Healing. 263 

me. In the name of God, our Heavenly Father, 
and of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Healer, I 
bid this disease depart from this dear suffering 
brother, and never more afflict him." ' 

Newton passed to his eternal reward lej ving 
no great riches behind him, no " inspired ' wri- 
tings or " revelations," no sect or cult be,(,ring 
his name, nothing but the gratitude of some'250,- 
000 healed patients, the vast majority of whom 
walked in the ranks of the obscure and lowly. 

Requiescat in^ace et lux^er^etua luceat ei. 



CHAPTER 11. 

OHEIST'S " MIGHTY WORKS " IIST THE LIGHT OF 

PSYCHIC LAW ; INCLUDING HIS BIETH 

AND EESUREECTION. 

These works, -when compared with modern manifestations of 
like character, represent like phenomena performed under 
like conditions. — His superphysical birth is in conformity 
to the known conditions of modern psycho chemicaliza- 
tion, and manifests the law of higher symmetry in its 
consummation. — The fact of His resurrection is demon- 
strated, in that He, who in His earthly psychic works 
evinced His inerrant insight into psychic conditions, pre- 
dicted it. — Its corroboration in the light of modern mate- 
rializing phenomena. 

§ 1. His Mighty Works during Sis Earthly 
Ministry. 

That class of manifestations spoken of in the 
]N"ew Testament as dunameis, " mighty works," 
or " powers," now claims our consideration. 

They are contrasted by one evangelist, St. 
Mark, with works of healing, as though they be- 
longed to another class. We cite the passage 
once more : " He could there do no power, 
{diinamin) save that he laid his hand upon a few 
sick folk and healed them " {St. Mark 6 : 5). 

We have seen, however, that His works of 
healing were powers, inasmuch as in their perfor- 
mance ^^ power went forth from him and healed 

264 



Chris fs ^^ Mighty PToryfcs." 265 

them all." But the healing of the sick seemed 
to be regarded by the evangelist as a minor 
power. 

Not stopping to discuss the evangelist's esti- 
mation, we see that the difference between 
Christ's therapeutic and other works is one of 
degree only. Apparently to cure a disease, to act 
upon the organic matter of the human body, was 
less of a " power " than to act upon inorganic 
matter outside of the human body. At least so 
St. Mark estimated it. 

But we are expressly told that the modus 
operandi in these lesser powers (healing) was the 
emanation of Si. force {dunamis) from His Person. 
This was what constituted the act a power. It 
would follow that the modus operandi in the per- 
formance of the greater powers would be the 
same : — an intelligently-directed emanation of 
force. Here, then, again we are dealing with a 
psychic condition treated of in chapter iv of 
Part II — the spirit's forthputting of the soul's ^ 
etheric aura in the action of psychic force upon 
matter, as in telekinesis. 

But we know further that such manifestations 
by modern psychics are conditioned by confidence 
on their part. In other words, all adverse 
psychic forces in the consciousness-strata must be 
suppressed.^ Consciousness, which is liable to 

' For distinction between spirit and soul, see Part II, chap- 
ter iv, p. 144. 

2 See Part II, chapter iv, pp. 169 and 170. 



266 Christ's ''Mighty Works." 

"make cowards of us all," must be overcome, 
otherwise control over the psychic forces which 
do the required work is impossible. This confi- 
dence is faith in its positive form, as we have ex- 
plained in the chapter previous to this. (See 
page 220.) 

Does Christ recognize the necessity of this in 
the performance of the so-called greater powers, 
or physical manifestations ? 

Let us examine a few specific cases : 

(1) Jesus walking upon the waters of the 
Galilean Lake, (St. Matt. 14 : 22, 23 ; St. Mark 
6 : 45-52 ; St. John 6 : 15-22). 

The disciples at first mistook the walking 
figure for an apparition. Peter, to assure him- 
self of the Master's identity, said, " Lord, if it be 
thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." 
Jesus answered " Come " ; and Peter, full of as- 
surance, left the boat and walked out over the 
waves towards the Master. "But," says the 
record, "when he saw the wind boisterous, he 
was afraid." What was the result ? He began 
to sink and cried out, " Lord, save me ! " The 
grasp of his Master^ s Tiand^ restored the dis- 
ciple's confidence, and the two proceeded over the 
waves to the ship. Then followed this signifi- 
cant rebuke administered \>y the Master to 
Peter : " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst 
thou doubt f " The Lord then stilled the tempest 
— according to St. Mark — and turning to all of 

' Presumably the impartation of psychic force by contact. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works.'' 267 

the boat's crew, said : " Why are ye so fearful ? 
How is it that ye have no faith ? " 

It is manifest here that Jesus still recognizes 
the same condition of faith which He had all 
along been recognizing and utilizing in His 
therapeutic works. His recorded rebukes imply 
that both Peter and the others might have done 
as He did, if only they had manifested their con- 
fidence. This implication becomes explicit when 
Ave compare this incident with certain words of 
the Master spoken on another occasion : " Yerily, 
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, 
the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater 
works shall he do." ^ (St. John 14 : 12). 

(2) The Withering of the Fig Tree and the 
Words Spoken Concerning it (St. Matthew 
21 : 19 f. ; St. Mark 11 : 20 f.). 

When the disciples marveled that the tree was 
withered so soon in obedience to the Master's 
command, Jesus replied, " Have faith in God 
(St. Mark), Yerily I say unto you, if ye have faith 
and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is 
done to the fig tree (St. Matthew) but also if ye 
say to this mountain. Be thou removed and be 
thou cast into the sea, (Sts. Matthew and Mark) 
it shall be done (St. Matthew). (And if) he shall 
not doubt in his heart but shall believe those 
things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall 
have whatsoever he saith " (St. Mark). Compare 

' Belief on Him, the source of cosmic energy, places that 
energy at the believer's disposal. 



268 Ghrist^s ^^Mighty Works^ 

also St. Matthew 17 : 20, " If ye have faith as a 
grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this 
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it 
shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible to 
you." 

(3) The Master's reply to the prayer : " Lord, 
increase our faith." 

The reply as recorded by St. Luke (17 : 6) is : 
" If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou 
plucked up by the roots, and be thou planted in 
the sea and it shall obey you." 

This reply, together with the words cited 
under the case preceding this, shows beyond the 
need of further demonstration that Jesus recog- 
nized a condition — that of confidence — which, 
under favorable circumstances, could be brought 
into operation, whether by Himself or by any 
human agent, to open the way to any super- 
physical work, whether therapeutic or non-ther- 
apeutic. 

Before considering further the conditions 
recognized and employed by the Master in His 
" Mighty Works," {dunmneis) we would do well 
to remind ourselves that these works belong 
mainly to two of the sub-classes of Psychic 
Action upon Matter which we have reviewed in 
Part II, viz. : telekinesis and psycho-chemicaliza- 
tion. There is also one phenomenon of sjpirit- 
materialization which must presently claim our 
attention. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works.'' 269 

Under the head of telekinesis fall the following : 

(1) The so-called miraculous draught of fishes on 
two occasions. The most obvious explanation 
seems to be the setting in motion of a force by 
the Master's agency which impelled the fishes to 
swarm to the spot in which the nets were cast. 

(2) Walking upon the water ; the setting in mo- 
tion of a force which cancelled the known phys- 
ical laws of specific gravity and attraction. (3) 
Stilling of the tempest ; the setting in motion of 
meteorological forces which allayed the wind- 
storm. (4) Causing the oflicers and crowd in 
Gethsemane to fall backward upon the ground ; 
— projecting a force upon them. 

Under the head chemicalization fall the follow- 
ing : (1) The changing of water into wine at the 
Cana marriage-feast. (2) The multiplication of 
loaves and fishes on two occasions whereby a 
multitude was fed. (3) The withering of the fig 
tree. 

Both modern psychic agency and that of the 
Master have produced phenomena in telekinesis 
and psycho-chemicalization. Those which the 
gospels record of Christ differ from the well-au- 
thenticated modern phenomena not in kind, but 
in degree. There is no difference in principle be- 
tween the levitation of a piece of furniture and 
the stilling of a tempest. Each is a telekinetic 
phenomenon. The laws governing each are the 
same, l^ov is there any difference in principle 
between certain of the modern materializing 



270 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:'' 



phenomena which we have noted in Part II, and 
the transmutation of water into wine. Each is a 
phenomenon of psycho-chemicalization, and de- 
pends upon some unknown action of psychic 
force. The difference between evangelical and 
modern thaumaturgic phenomena may be shown 
thus: 



Telekinesis. 



Psycho-Chemicalization. 



) Matter outside the 
bodily organism to 
a great degree, e. 
g., a tempest stilled. 



(Matter outside the 
bodily organism to 
a lesser degree, e. g., 
a table levitated. 



Matter within the body to 
a great degree, e. jr., the 
maimed cured. 
' Matter outside the body to 
a great degree, e- g., water 
turned into wine. 

Matter within the body to 
a lesser degree, e. g., ner- 
vous diseases cured. ' Mat- 
ter outside the body to the 
degree ex ewipliiied by ma- 
terializing phenomena. 



A phenomenon of a different class from those 
which we have been considering; — or rather 
three separate phenomena, are those which took 
place on the Mount of Transfiguration. 

" He took with him Peter and John and James, 
and went up into the mountain to pray " {St. 
Lxike 9 : 28). 

The presence of the definite article indicates 
that this mountain was a place in which the Mas- 
ter had prayed before ; one of His chosen sanc- 
tuaries. It was doubtless the same Galilean 
mountain referred to in 8t. Matt. 14 : 27 to whose 
summit He was wont to retire alone at the close 



^ See, however, Postscriptum to previous chapter. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works.'' 271 

of His day's labor in the cities on the Galilean 
lakeshore. 

St. Matthew's statement above referred to is : 
" And after he had sent the multitude away, he 
went up into the mountain apart to pray : and 
when even was come, he was there alone." It is 
probably the same mountain also on whose sum- 
mit he spent the night in prayer prior to the 
choice of the tw^elve (St. Luke 6 : 12). 

The times chosen by our Lord for private 
prayer were either the evening, the night or be- 
fore the break of dawn. Compare St. Mark 
1:35; St. Luke 6:12; St. Matt. 26:37; St. 
Mark 14 : 33 ; St. Luke 22 : 39 ; St. John 13 : 1. 

It is therefore all but absolutely certain that 
in this oft-frequented mountain near Lake Galilee 
after daylight had hegun to fade, and perhaps 
after darkness had set in, the Transfiguration 
phenomena took place. 

This conclusion is presumptively confirmed by 
St. Luke's statement, 9 : 37 ; " And it came to 
pass, on the next day, when they were come down 
from the mountain " — etc. ; implying that they 
had tarried upon the mountain during the night. 
St. Matthew moreover speaks of the overshadow- 
ing cloud which concluded the phenomena as a 
hright cloud : (17 : 5) a manifestation more con- 
sistent with darkness than with surrounding 
light ; as is also the illumination of the Master's 
face (17 : 2). 

"Why we have been at pains to show that the 



272 Christ's ^^ Mighty Works.^^ 

Transfiguration took place in the evening or at 
night will be apparent presently. 

The next point to be noted is that the three 
disciples were heavy with sleep {St. Luke 9 : 32), 
i. e., lethargic^ while Jesus was heing transfigxired^ 
and while the forms of Moses and Elias were be- 
ing hrought into manifestation. 

" When they (the three disciples) were fully 
awake," St. Luke notes, " they saw his glory and 
the two men that stood with him," {verse 32b) 
" who appeared in glory and spoke of the decease 
which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem " 
{verse 31). 

From St. Luke's account it also appears that 
the dematerialization of the saintly forms was 
gradual. ".J.« they were parthig from him,'''' (as 
though they slowly faded away) "Peter said 
unto Jesus," — etc. {verse 33). 

Here we have with wonderful minuteness all 
the conditions which are recognized by modern 
psychics as the most favorable for materializing 
phenomena. 

We have first, darkness or the subdued light 
of evening ; second, silence and perfect harmony 
of minds ; third, the lethargic state ; in this case of 
three men, one of whom, namely, Peter, was after- 
wards a powerful agent of superphysical phe- 
nomena; lastly we have the perfectly developed 
Master who had abundantly on previous occa- 
sions demonstrated His control over psychic force. 

Thus we see in this materializing phenomenon 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:' 213 

a minute recognition on the Master's part of the 
psychic mechmiism, if the term be allowable, 
whereby phenomena the same in kind, though 
far inferior in dignity, are produced to-day. (See 
chapter iii of Part II.) 

In the Master's Transfiguration we see a tem- 
porary subjection of the physical to the psychical 
person, extending to the very raiment which He 
wore. — His etheric aura, as it were, became con- 
centrated and visualized. — Countenance and rai- 
ment became altered — " His face did shine as the 
sun " ; " His raiment became white and daz- 
zling " ; " White as the light " ; " Exceeding 
white as no fuller's earth can whiten them." 

In many of the materialized forms which we 
have witnessed this marvelous whiteness^ some- 
times scintillating and radiant, has impressed us ; 
and carried us in thought back to the " Holy 
Mount." 

" The fashion of his countenance was altered." 
— The alteration of the physical form by psychic 
force is a phenomenon witnessed and attested by 
Sir Wm. Crookes in his report to the London 
S. P. E. of his seances with D. D. Home ; namely, 
in the elongation of Home's physical stature. 
(See S. P. E. Proceedings, Part XY.) Wiile 
this phenomenon in the Home case is grotesque 
and undignified, it illustrates the principle of 
physiological alteration by psychic agency de- 
scribed here by the evangelists. 

We come now to speak of the condition which 



214 Christ's ''Mighty Works:' 

the Master seems to have utilized in the Trans- 
figuration phenomena, concerning which we al- 
ready have spoken near the conclusion of chap- 
ter iv of Part II ; — darkness, or subdued light. 

This condition appears to have been recognized 
by the profound insight of Jesus in other of His 
mighty works or dunameis. 

The " power " manifested in the two draughts 
of fishes was in the dim or gray light of day- 
break. This is explicitly stated as being the case 
on the second occasion. St. John 21 : 4, " But 
when the day was now breaking." 

That on the first occasion the phenomenon oc- 
curred at the same hour is apparent from St. 
Luke's statement, 5 : 5, " Master, we toiled 
all night, and took nothing." That most won- 
derful of all the Master's works of healing, the 
restoration of Malchus' ear in Gethsemane, oc- 
curred by night. 

The transmutation of water into wine at the 
Cana wedding-feast occurred by the subdued 
light of Oriental lamps. Behind the opaque clay 
with which Jesus anointed the eyes of the man 
born blind the forces operated which restored 
sight. The man who was bidden to wash in the 
pool of Siloam by being submerged therein was 
for the time cut off from much of the caloric and 
actinic rays; thus coming into a condition in 
which the forces could act more favorably. 

Lazarus was raised from the dead in the dark- 
ness of a cave. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:' 275 

Jairus' daughter was similarly raised in the 
subdued light of an Oriental upper-chamber, 

A demoniac was cured in the dim light of a 
synagogue. 

Simon's wife's mother in the dim light of an 
Oriental bed-chamber was healed of a fever. 

It was " when even was come " (St. Matt. 
14 : 15) that Jesus fed the 5,000 from the five 
loaves and two fishes. 

It was at the end of the third day, and pre- 
sumably towards evening, that the 4,000 were 
fed. 

In the dawn of early morning the fig tree was 
withered. 

In the darkness of the night the tempest was 
stilled. 

In the darkness of the night Jesus walked 
upon the waves. 

In the dim dawn of the day following the still- 
ing of the tempest the demoniac of Gadara was 
cured. 

In the darkness of Gethsemane Jesus put forth 
that force which caused the multitude to fall 
down. 

Thus all of Jesus' telehinetic and psycho-chem- 
ical works were performed either in darkness or 
by the subdued light of evening, early morning, 
or by Oriental lamplight. Many of His more 
notable therapeutic works were performed under 
similar conditions. 

It is noteworthy also how many of His post- 



276 Christ's ^'Mighty Works:' 

resurrection manifestations were by night, by 
evening, or by early morn. 

Furthermore when we come to examine the 
disciples' works recorded in Acts, we shall find 
many of these performed by darkness or subdued 
light. We do not say that this condition was 
absolutely indispensable for such a perfectly de- 
veloped psychic as was Jesus ; but His employ- 
ment of this condition in every one of His teleki- 
netic and psycho-cheiniQal works, as well as hi the 
Transfiguration phenomena, is certainly most 
significant in showing the knowledge of favoring 
conditions which He possessed. 

His recognition of this condition and that of 
confidence on the part of the " operator " in the 
performance of mighty works or dunameis, and 
the guileless recording of the same by the evan- 
gelists, corroborate the conclusion reached in the 
last chapter: Jesus' Psychic Inerrancy, and 
Evangelical Yeracity. 

§ 2. Chrisfs Super physical Birth, St. Matt. 
1: 18. "JSTow the birth of Jesus Christ Avas on 
this wise: When as his mother Mary was 
espoused to Joseph, before they came together, 
she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." 
Y. 20, " For that which is conceived in her is of 
the Holy Ghost." 

St. Luke 1 : 35, " The Holy Ghost shall come 
upon thee and the power of the highest shall 
overshadow thee ; therefore also that holy thing 
that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:^ 27t 

of God." Y. 38, "And Mary said, Behold the 
handmaid of the Lord : be it unto me according 
to thy word." 

The phenomenon here described is that com- 
monly known as the Immaculate Conception of 
Jesus Christ : that is, that the Man Jesus was 
conceived in the womb superphysically. Those 
who reject this record do so chiefly on a priori 
grounds ; that is, on precisely the same grounds 
as those upon which they reject the records of 
the therapeutic and other works of Jesus. The 
objection springs from the materialistic dictum 
which we have refuted, " Miracles," i. e., super- 
physical phenomena, " do not happen." 

While acknowledging that the Immaculate 
Conception cannot be scientifically demonstrated 
in the same way that Christ's own superphysical 
works can be, we can say this : that the a priori 
objections urged against it, both from the stand- 
point of theological necessity and from that of 
physical possibility are not well taken. As this 
book deals only with the psychic aspect of the 
gospel-record, it would be outside of its scope to 
discuss objections entered from the standpoint of 
theological necessity. We do not profess to be 
theologians. We take pleasure, however, in re- 
ferring our readers to E, Grifiith Jones's " The 
Ascent Through Christ," ^ a work which to our 
mind thoroughly answers objections grounded 
upon theological necessity. 

1 Gorham, N. Y. 



278 Chrisfs ''Mighty Works:' 

Meanwhile let us consider the Immaculate 
Conception from the standpoint of psychic possi- 
bility. 

Conception, it will be admitted, is a process of 
organic chemistry. There is involved in it two 
factors, the material and the psychic. The 
former is likewise twofold, that is, consists of 
two elements, the zoosperm and the ovum. In 
their union there is a blending of two psychic 
units into a new psychic organism, which is the 
foetus. 

In parthenogenesis, granting its possibility, an 
ovum would of necessity have to be fertilized by 
a materialized zoosjpeTm. 

E'ow we have an abundance of modern data 
bearing upon materialization. We know that 
complete human organisms with all their com- 
plexities and modifications ; real, palpable, living, 
intelligent men and women, for the time being 
answering to every physiological test; — that 
these can be materialized in almost a moment of 
time. (See PaH II, diajpter ii, Class Y and 
chapter iii, §§ 8-10.) 

From a standpoint of mere possibility it would 
certainly seem that the materialization of such a 
simple structure as a zoosperm would be far easier 
and inherently far more credible than that of 
such a highly complex structure as a complete 
human organism. But we know that the latter 
has been accomplished ; a fortiori, therefore, the 
former is entirely credible. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:' 279 

Furthermore, let us not be unmindful of that 
for which the historic personality of Jesus 
stands ; of His place in human history ; that He 
was an epoch-making Being, We shall see in 
chapter iv that He is a unique Being : One 
who manifested ideal psychic development ; per- 
fect conscious control over all His subconscious 
and automatic psychic forces. 

As such, we can understand how St. Paul could 
call Him " The Second Adam " — the Inaugurator 
of a New Humanity. 

It would seem to us to be Jfitting — and here we 
confess that we enter the theological field — that 
in the production of this ]N"ew Being, the Imma- 
nent Intelligence, which is the Holy Ghost, 
should employ a mode of genesis free from the 
material limitations inhering in sexual union ; 
especially as sexual union, no matter what self- 
deluded pietists may say to the contrary, is in- 
variably engaged in primarily for pleasure, — with 
procreation standing only as a vague possible 
consequence. (We crave the indulgence accorded 
to professional men for speaking plainly, as our 
supreme regard is for truth.) We cannot see any 
divine fitness — the very notion must shock the 
moral sensibilities of all who revere Jesus, no 
matter what their beliefs may be as to His Per- 
sonality — in supposing that such a glorious Man 
could be the natural product of sexual union out 
of wedlock ; as must needs have been the case if 
He was not immaculately conceived. 



280 ChrisVs ''Mighty Works^ 

His Immaculation Conception is spiritually fit- 
ting, and it is entirely within the limits of mate- 
rializing possibilities. 

The Immaculate Conception would stand as the 
Spirit's consummation of the law of higher 
symmetry in the " fulness of time " ; — time 
which had its beginning in the nebulous star- 
dust. 

§ 3. The Resurrection. 

Our argument for the resurrection, reduced to 
brief form, would be this : In the foregoing ex- 
amination ^ the veracity of the record as to Jesus' 
superphysical works is established. If the rec- 
ord is veracious in its accounts of these works 
it is presumably so in its report of Jesus' sayings. 
Among these sayings are sundry which foretell 
directly and indirectly His resurrection. 

Directly. (1) Matt. 16 : 21, where He also 
foretells His death. Cf. Mark 8: 31 and 
Luke 9 : 22. 

(2) Matt. 17 : 9 : " Tell the vision to no man 
until the Son of Man be risen again from the 
dead." Cf. Mark 9 : 9. 

(3) Matt. 17 : 23f. " The Son of Man shall be 
betrayed into the hands of men ; and they shall 
kill him and the third day he shall be raised 
again." 

(4) Matt. 20:18, 19. "Behold, we go up to 
Jerusalem ; and the Son of Man shall be betrayed 
into the hands of the chief priests, and unto the 

^ Chapter i and g 1 of chapter ii. 



Christ's ''Highly Works.'^ 281 

scribes ; and they shall condemn him to death, 
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, 
and to scourge and to crucify him ; and the 
third day he shall rise again." Cf. Mark 10 : 31 ; 
Luke 18 : 31f. 

Indirectly. (1) Mark Id : 58 : "I will destroy 
this temple that is made with hands, and in three 
days I will build another made without hands." 
Compare also John 2 : 19. 

(2) Matt. 12 : 39f. The sign of the prophet 
Jonas. 

(3) John 5 : 26 : " For as the Father hath life 
in himself, so also hath he given to the Son to 
have life in himself." 

(4) John 10 : ITf. : " Therefore doth my Fa- 
ther love me because I lay down my life that I 
might take it again. ISTo man taketh it from me, 
but I lay it down of myself. I have power to 
lay it down, and power to take it again." 

The foregoing examination of Jesus' sujper- 
physical worhs (in chapter i and in § 1 of this 
chapter) shoios His scientific knowledge of jpsychic 
laws and conditions. 

"We conclude therefore that when He foretold 
His resurrection on the third day ; that when 
He affirmed that He had life in Himself, with 
power to lay it down and power to take it 
again. He spoke whereof He knew ; He spoke as 
one psychically acquainted with the conditions of 
life and death. 

It is these ante-mortem statements of Christ, 



282 Christ's '^Miglitij Works:' 

as an inerrant psychic Authority, which, to our 
mind, constitute the weightiest evidence of His 
resurrection as reported by the evangelists and 
St. PauL 

What Jesus could do heyond the tomb must 
logically he determined hy what lie did and 
jproved Himself to he on this side of the tomb. 
Prove the superphysical works of Jesus; prove 
His inerrant psychic insight ; prove that He fore- 
told His resurrection and affirmed His power to 
lay down His life and to take it again, and you 
have made credible the actual historic evidence 
which we have at hand, that His resurrection is 
a fact of history. 

But what, it may be asked, is the nature of 
Christ's resurrection as described in the New 
Testament? And further, are there any phe- 
nomena in modern times corresponding in princi- 
ple to its recorded manifestations ? 

First, as to its nature. 

" The third day he rose again from the dead," 
and " the third day he rose again according to 
the scriptures," are the formulas of historic 
Christianity. 

St. Paul's statement is : " And that he hath 
been raised on the third day according to the 
scriptures " {1 Cor. 15 : 4). 

The fact referred to in these statements 
is that on the third day after the severance 
of spirit from flesh He returned corporeally 
from the spiritual world to the earth-plane 



Christ's ''Mightij Works:' 283 

reanimating in some mysterious way the slain 
body. 

Looking into the resurrection-narratives, we 
find that on the third day the sepulchre was 
found empty ; the slain body gone ; that the 
Kisen One was seen on numerous occasions dur- 
ing the great Forty Days in corporeal form ; that 
His corporeity was in appearance identical with 
that of the Jesus who had died ; but it now pos- 
sessed qualities which enabled it to appear and 
vanish at will and to pass in and out of closed 
rooms. 

Such are the recorded facts. Admitting them 
provisionally, we are brought to one obvious 
conclusion : that a change so momentous had 
taken place in the entombed body as to amount 
to a transfoTmation / a change in nature / — from 
a body natural to a body spiritual. 

This complete transformation in nature had, as 
we have seen, been foretold by Christ "in the 
days of his flesh " when He said, " I will destroy 
this temple that is made with hands, and in three 
days I will build another, made without hands " 
(Mark 14: 58). 

His resurrection therefore carried with it a de- 
struction, an obliteration, a dissolution of the 
fleshly element ; not however by the processes of 
corruption, but by the process of merging or ab- 
sorption, analogous to the fecundation of a seed, 
yet withal an instant aneoxis and not a gradual 
fecundation. The body of flesh, still uncorrupt, 



284 Chrisfs ''Mighty Worlcs^ 

was, according to the narrative, merged into the 
spiritual element " in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye." " The temple made with hands " — 
of the substance of the Virgin Mother — was mys- 
tically " destroyed " ; — absorbed into the spiritual 
element " in which also " He had gone " and 
preached unto the spirits in prison which afore- 
time were disobedient " (1 Peter 3 : 19f ,). 

One difficulty, we think, that presents itself, 
lies in the relationship between Christ's resurrec- 
tion and our own. 

St. Paul states in 1 Cor. 15 : 20 and 23 : "But 
now hath Christ been raised from {Greek: i/c, 
out of) the dead, the first-fruits of them that are 
asleep. . . . But each in his own order ; 
Christ the first-fruits ; then they that are Christ's 
at his coming " (Greek : in His presence — 
Tra^ouTca). A common interpretation of the I'ela- 
tionship between Christ's resurrection and our 
own is this; Christ died and sojourned as a 
Bodiless Spirit in the spiritual world. We shall 
do the same. Christ's Bodiless Spirit returned to 
embodiment by reanimating the entombed body. 
Our spirit shall do the same at the Parousia 
when "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead 
shall be raised incorruptible." 

To our mind this interpretation confuses points 
which are unique in Christ's resurrection with 
those which we have in common with His 
own. 

The essentially parallel features of Christ's 



Christ's ''Mighty Works:' 285 

resurrection and that of those " That are Christ's 
at his coming " are, we think, these : 

(1) Christ was clothed in flesh. So is the 
disciple. 

(2) Christ tasted of death. So does the 
disciple. 

(3) Christ, " quickened in the spirit " * so- 
journed in the Spiritual world. So does the de- 
parted disciple. 

(4) Now the departed disciple in the Spiritual 
world lives in a finer embodiment. He is not a 
bodiless spirit, as witness Moses and Elijah, 
So presumably must Christ have thus sojourned 
there ; viz., in a finer embodiment ; for it behoved 
Him who took upon Himself our humanity to 
pass through all essential human experiences ; — 
only without sin. 

(5) Christ arose out of the dead perfect and 
complete as touching His manhood ; i. e., with 
His human Spirit and corporeity eternally Jin- 
ished ; — " the first-fruits of them that are asleep." 
This will be the resurrection-gift of those that 
are as Christ's at His coming. 

In these five features we have, we think, the 
essential parallelism between the Second Adam 
and His disciple from the earth life to the at- 
tainment of resurrection. 

But connected with Christ's resurrection are 
certain features which are unique and un- 
paralleled. 

U Peter 3: 18. 



286 Christ's ''Ilighty Works' 

(1) His sojourn in the Spiritual world was 
limited to three days. 

(2) The mortal body saw not corruption.^ 

(3) In some mysterious manner it was merged 
upon the third day with the perfected body of 
glory. 

In contrast with these features : 

(1) Our sojourn in the Spiritual world will 
extend to the Parousia. 

(2) Our mortal bodies will have been com- 
pletely obliterated. 

(3) These obliterated bodies will have no part 
in our essential resurrection. " Corruption doth 
not inherit incorruption," (1 Cor. 15 : 50). 

" Thou so west not the body that shall be," 
(1 Cor. 15 : 37). 

A little reflection will show w^hy the unique 
and unparalleled features in Christ's resurrection 
was necessary. 

First, that He might be " declared as the Son 
of God with power " (Komans 1 : 4). 

His mortal body had been slain by His 
enemies. He had proclaimed that the laying 
down of His life had been voluntary ; a free-will 
offering ; that He had power to lay it down, and 
power to take it again. ^ 

That mysterious merging which took place in 
the sepulchre on Easter Morning stood as a 
vindication of His words. 

Second, had the unique and mighty event not 

1 Acts 2: 31. 2 John 10: 18. 



Christ's ''Mighhj Works.^^ 287 

occurred, the preaching of the gospel would have 
been in vain. The Jews would have pointed 
sneeringly to the corrupted body in the sepulchre 
as an evidence that the discij)les were deceiving 
them or else telling them ghost-stories. 

In the five features named above the complete 
and essential resurrection of Christ and that of 
His disciples stand parallel. As touching those 
essential features, Christ is " the first-fruits of 
them that are asleep." 

But as touching the three other features named 
above, Christ's resurrection stands unique ; for to 
Him alone it pertained to be declared and vindi- 
cated as the Son of God with power. ^ 

Seeond, Are there any phenomena in modern 
times corresponding in principle to the recorded 
manifestations of the Risen Christ ? 

We have seen that Christ's resurrection-body, 
as described in the New Testament, was spirit- 

^ The passage most frequently quoted by those who connect 
corporeal resuiTeotion with the graveyard-body is John 5 : 28, 
29. The Master there refers to the departed as ' ' all that are in 
the tombs. ' ' 

That the phrase is however a figurative adaption of language 
to a popular conception can be seen at once by comparing the 
passage with the Master's refutation of the Sadducees : Luke 
29 : 37, 38. Here it is plain that Christ does not regard the 
departed as " in the tombs. ' ' He tells the Sadducees that the 
fathers are not where their corpses are. " They live unto God. 
God is not the God of the dead. ' ' 

So when Paul tells us that God will bring the departed with 
Him at the Parousia, (1 Thess. 4 : 14) he refers not to cemeteries 
as their intermediate abiding-place, but to the spiritual world. 



288 Christ's ''Mighty Works.''' 

ual ; that is, it possessed in itself the poten- 
tiality of becoming visible, tangible, and con- 
forming to all the tests of materiality ; while, 
unlike a fleshly body, it could appear and 
vanish at will {Luke 24 : 31) and pass in and out 
of a closed room {John 20 : 19, 26). In these 
respects the modern phenomenon of materializa- 
tion is in exact correspondence. Its attestation 
and its phases we have already, we think, suffi- 
ciently discussed.^ Our own personal observations 
are in accord with those noted by Sir. Wm. 
Crookes, Henry S. Olcott and others. The forms 
observed manifested at the time all the attributes 
of palpable fleshly organisms, and yet could 
vanish or melt away in the twinkling of an eye. 
By some law or laws of organic chemistry, un- 
known to us on this side of the spiritual world, 
some of the inhabitants thereof — mostly through 
mediumship — are apparently able to clothe their 
corporeity with material appurtenances for 
varying lengths of time. "We say "mostly 
through mediumship " because we have in mind 
cases of apparitions whose manifestations have 
been apparently independent of mediumship: — 
for example, apparitions of the dying and re- 
cently dead. 

The fact of materialization as a modern phe- 
nomenon is sufficient to silence a priori objec- 
tions to the manifestations recorded of the Risen 
Christ. There they stand on the pages of the 
' See Part II, chapter ii, p. 74 and chapter iii, § ? 8-10. 



Christ's ''Mighty Works.'' 289 

record paralleling point for point what we see to- 
day. 

The means and instrumentalities which the 
Kisen Master employed for bringing about these 
manifestations form a subject on which we do 
not feel competent to speak. We can only repeat 
that on this side of the toml) He manifested a 
complete knowledge of all spiritual laws and re- 
lations, a knowledge which would of course re- 
main unaltered by the accident of passing out of 
the flesh. He knew all spiritual laws. He said 
that He would arise and show Himself after 
death. His recorded manifestations after death 
are paralleled in principle by what we see to-day. 

The evidence therefore is overwhelming that 
He did what He said He would do/ viz., incor- 
porate the entombed body into His spiritual or- 
ganism, and manifest it as recorded. 



Note to Chapter II. 

Of apparent thaumaturgic works not mentioned in this chap- 
ter, there are the following : (1) The catching of the fish that 
furnished tribute money; (St. Matt. 17:27) plainly a case of 
independent clairvoyance combined with telekinesis. (2) 
Jesus' escape from His enemies on the brow of the hill at Naz- 
areth (St. Luke4 :30). Seemingly a case of invisibility brought 
about by psychic force and etheric vibration as is done to-day 
by Yogis of India, which is analogous to dematerializing ; or 
possibly a case of telekinetic force-projection analogous to that 
in Gethsemane (St. John 18 : 6) whereby the physical powers 

1 St. Mark 14:58. 



290 Christ's ''Mighty Works.'' 

of His enemies were temporarily inhibited. (3) His escape at 
the temple from those who would stone Him (St. John 8 : 59). 
The text of v. 59b as in King James' version is of doubtful au- 
thority, being omitted in Revised Version ; thus leaving state- 
ment, ' ' but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple ' ' ; 
— a perfectly normal act. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SUPEEPHYSICAL WOEKS OF JESUS' FIRST 
DISCIPLES. 

A detailed examination of these shows that the disciples con- 
formed to the conditions laid down by the Master, but 
lacked scientific insight thereinto. 

§ 1. The few following sections, supplemental 
to the considerations of the last two chapters, while 
not essential to the plan of this work, will, we 
trust, serve to show how the record represents 
the first disciples as mindful of one of the psychic 
conditions in which they were instructed by their 
Master, viz., that of faith ; a faith that expresses 
itself in confidence on the part of the healer or 
agent, and that Tmist be manifested on the part 
of the patient. 

It will also appear, after our examination of 
the recorded cases, as well as during the same, 
that psychic force likewise forms a factor ; albeit 
one of which the disciples were not appreciative 
in the same scientific sense in which the Master 
discerned it. We shall see that the disciples un- 
derstood that faith was a necessary condition, 
but not wJiy it was ; that their personal presence, 
accompanied in many cases by manual contact, 
was necessary, but not why it was necessary ; 

291 



292 The Superphysical Works. 

viz., as a hattery, so to speak, througli wliicli 
psychic force was generated and projected. 

The data from which we build up our con- 
clusions lack the definiteness and circumstantial- 
ity of detail which characterize the data of the 
four gospels. The Book of Acts, from which 
practically all of our data are drawn, is evidently 
composed of materials not so thoroughly organic 
and vital to the traditions of early Christians as 
were those connected with the life, words and 
works of the Master. The hearers of Christ and 
the witnesses of His deeds were, for the most 
part, present with Him from beginning to end. 
All that so great a Personality said and did, we 
may well believe, sank into the ^^ siibliminal 
tnemories " of those whom He gathered around 
Him. Less likely would this be the case with 
those who witnessed the words and deeds of the 
apostles. While of course the " subliminal mem- 
ory " takes in everything, it by no means gives 
hack everything, except under special conditions. 
These special conditions would be far more apt 
to be operative in the case of those recalling the 
words and deeds of Christ than in the case of 
those recalling the words and deeds of His 
apostles and leading disciples. We must add to 
these considerations the fact that Christ's wit- 
nesses were one body of men ; whereas the wit- 
nesses of apostolic words and deeds were scat- 
tered. Some were gathered around Peter, John, 
James and the older apostles ; others were gath- 



The Superphysical Works. 293 

ered around Paul, Barnabas and Silas. Luke, 
the writer of Acts, therefore, gets his material 
from different sets of witnesses whose memories 
may be assumed not to have been assisted to any 
marked degree by that potentially perfect store- 
house of memory, the "subliminal conscious- 
ness." But Luke, the Gospel-writer, has his ma- 
terials supplied to him from one set of witnesses ^ 
whose very act of reminiscence, where the Great 
Master is concerned, would serve as a potent sug- 
gestion to their "subliminal consciousness" to 
deliver up from its inerrant treasure house. The 
circumstantiality of many of the cases recorded 
in the Acts being meagre as compared with that 
of the gospel-records, our observations and con- 
clusions must necessarily be somewhat of a con- 
jectural nature. Yet we are firmly convinced 
that enough facts are shown to validate our final 
conclusions respecting the apostles' knowledge of 
psychic conditions compared with that of Christ. 
We should further premise, in deference to 
zealous " orthodox " readers, that in this exami- 
nation we propose to concede to the scientific 
critic everything that by any possibility can be 
conceded. But in so doing we do not necessarily 
identify ourselves with the position thus provi- 
sionally granted. For example, in certain ther- 

^ St. Luke 1:2: "Even as they delivered them unto us, 
which from the beginning were eyewitnesses," — i. e., the co- 
laborers with Luke who were supplying him with his data for 
the third gospel. 



294 The Super physical Works. 

apeutic cases we shall find that mere suggestion 
without any auxiliary ab extra might be suflB.cient 
to account for the recorded cure. In such a case 
we shall concede that suggestion alone does suffice 
to account for it. 

§ 2. Before His departure Jesus is recorded to 
have told His disciples : that " these signs shall 
follow them that believe : In my name they 
shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new 
tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they 
drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; 
they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall 
recover " (St. Mark 16 : 17, 18). 

The same evangelist records that after the Mas- 
ter's ascension the disciples " went forth, and 
preached everywhere, the Lord working with 
them, and confirming the word with signs fol- 
lowing " (v. 20). 

The record of the Acts contains instances illus- 
trating all these " signs " as done through Apos- 
tolic agency, save only the absence of any re- 
corded cure of the drinking of poisonous liquids 
with immunity. 

There is nothing in the record to justify the 
exegesis, which the above passage standing alone 
might suggest to the insistent literalist, that the 
disciples went around, like the lower classes of 
modern Hindu fakirs, giving exhibitions in im- 
mune poison-drinking and snake-handling. As 
to the latter, the only case in the record is that 
of St. Paul's immunity to the bite of a viper 



The Superphysical Work^. 295 

during his sojourn as a shipwrecked prisoner on 
the Island of Malta (Acts 28 : 5). 

" He shook off the beast into the fire and felt 
no harm," the record runs. Here it would seem 
that an unshaken faith on Paul's part is sufficient 
to explain the immunity. Translated into modern 
terms auto-suggestion produced a dynamo-genesis 
strong enough to inhibit the spread of the poison 
from periphery to vital centres. 

Aside from the gifts of immunity, those which 
the Master predicted (in St. Mark's record) fall 
into two classes : (1) Therapeiotic : — the casting 
out of devils, and healing the sick ; and (2) 
Clairvoyant : — the speaking with new tongues. 

The Book of the Acts records in addition to 
works of these classes some involving telekinesis 
which we shall notice presently ; also some of 
angelic m anif estation. The spiritual charismata 
enumerated by St. Paul (1 Cor. 12 : 8-10) in- 
clude telepathy, clairvoyance, psycho-therapeu- 
tics, telekinesis and mediumship.^ 

§ 3. The key to the understanding of the 
greater gifts exercised by the apostles is their 
especial endowment, ah extra with psychic force 
or cosmic energy. It is recorded that before 
Christ's ascension and after His resurrection He 
breathed upon them and said, " Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost " (St. John 20 : 22). This was in ad- 
dition to the general Pentecostal outpouring of 
the Spirit upon all the disciples ; — the apostles 

iSee Appendix B., pp. 373-375. 



296 The Superphyaical Works. 

among them. As for St. Paul, he received, we 
are told,' a special influx of divine energy. It 
is worthy of note that the recorded instances of 
higher therapeutics and thaumaturgics pertain to 
apostles only, with the one exception of Philip, 
the evangelist ; e.g.y instantaneous cures of serious 
organic diseases ; opening of prison doors by un- 
seen force ; raising of the dead, etc. 

While St. Paul in the course of his epistles 
enumerates and alludes to superphysical gifts as 
exercised by contemporary disciples, he describes 
no specific instance of their exercise. The data 
from which we may judge the modus oj)erandi 
of the exercise of some of their works are confined 
to the Book of the Acts. 

Case 1. The Pentecostal Gift of Tongues. 

Here the apostles (and possibly the disciples 
also) receive temporary power to preach the 
gospel in the languages of the various foreign 
Jews assembled at Jerusalem to observe the 
Pentecostal Feast. It seems to be a case of in- 
dependent clairvoyance ; possibly of telepathic 
rapport with those to whom they preached. It 
is a case faintly paralleled by some of the me- 
diumistic phenomena listed in Appendix A. If 
so, it is a manifestation of psychic conditions. 

Case 2. Healing of the Lame Man at the 
Beautiful Gate (3 : 1-8). 

The man asks an alms of Peter and John. 

^2 Cor. 12: 1-4 ; Gal. 1 : 12, 15, etc. 



The Superphysical Works. 297 

The two apostles fasten their eyes upon liim^ 
and say " Look on us." The man obeys, with 
the expectation of receiving charity. Peter dis- 
abuses him of tliis idea, and then commands him 
in the name of Jesus of ]N"azareth to rise up and 
walk. That this opens the gateway of faith is 
evidenced by Peter's subsequent assertion in his 
discourse: (v. 16), "And his name through 
faith in his name hath made this man strong, 
whom ye see and know ; yea, the faith that is by 
him hath given him this perfect soundness in the 
presence of you all." 

After opening the gate of the man's faith, 
Peter " took him by the right hand, and lifted 
him up ; and immediately his feet and ankle bones 
received strength " (v. T). Psychic force enters 
through the open gate. 

Case 3. " T?ie Place was Shaken Where They 
were Assenxbled " (4 : 31). 

The disciples in common assembly had just fin- 
ished the offering of a united prayer, when the 
phenomenon above described took place. This 
appears to be a telekinetic phenomenon, the re- 
sultant of the projection of the psychic force of 
the assembled disciples. Clairvoyant illumina- 
tion was a further accompaniment ; for, " they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they 
spoke the word of God with boldness." 

Case If,. Death of Ananias and Sapphira (ch. v). 

^The "hypnotic gaze" which is a medium of force-projec- 
ion. See in Postscripturn to chap, i of Part III. 



298 The Superphysical Works. 

Plainly the result of the suggestion by Peter 
transformed into a potent auto-suggestion by 
Ananias and Sapphira. This was a graphic illus- 
tration of the principle that " the wages of sin 
is death." 

Cases 5, 6. Angelic Deliverances of the Apos- 
tles from Prison (5 : 18f.). Cornjpare also 
12 : It 

Concerning Angelic Manifestations, see Ap- 
pendix B under head of " Spirit-Communication." 

Case 7. 8teplien''s Clairvoyant Vision (Y : 56). 

About to be martyred, he cried out, " Behold, 
I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man 
standing on the right hand of God." 

An objective vision through independent clair- 
voyance, or a subjective vision through auto- 
suggestion : — which ? Either is scientifically 
possible. We choose the former alternative. 

Case 8. Therapeutic Works Asc7'ihed to 
Philip : T)ut circumstances not specified (8 : 6, Y). 

Case 9. Philip instructed concerning his mis- 
sion to the eunuch by clairaudient voices (8 : 
26 and 29). In v, 26 the voice is ascribed to an 
angel : and in v. 29, to the Spirit. 

Case 10. After the baptism of the eunuch, 
" the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that 
the eunuch saw him no more. . . . But 
Philip was found at Azotus (8 : 39, 40). 

A telekinetic phenomenon. (See Appendix A : 
Class III : " Phenomena of Supernormal Intelli. 
gent Power " ; (4) " Ascension, or self-levitations 



The Superphysical Works. 299 

of agent's body." Compare also Sir Wm, 
Crookes' testimony.) 

Oase 11. The Conversion of Satil of Tarsus 
(9 : 3-8). Apparently a phenomenon of clair- 
voyance in which those who were with Saul 
were partial sharers or percipients. 

According to 9 : 7 : " The men which jour- 
neyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice 
but seeing no man." According to 22 : 9, in 
which Paul's speech at Jerusalem is reported, the 
record runs : " And they that were with me saw 
indeed the light ; but they heard not the voice 
of him that spake with me." 

In passing we may conjecture that some in the 
company saw the light and some merely heard 
the voice ; according to their different degrees of 
psychic sensitiveness. Saul alone appears to have 
been sufficiently sensitive to have perceived the 
whole content of the phenomenon.^ To him it 
was a revelation of God's Son in him (Galatians 
1 : 15, 16). 

Case 12. Mutual Vision of Ananias and 
Paul at Damascus (9 : 10-16). Here again we 
see independent clairvoyance as the Spirit's in- 
strument whereby Ananias and Paul were made 
acquainted with each other. 

(1) Ananias is clairvoyantly instructed as to 



^ Sir Wm. Crookes testifies that some of the luminous mani- 
festations reported by him were visible to some, and invisible to 

others. 



800 The Super physical Works. 

Paul's conversion and is commanded to seek him 
out in the house of Judas on Straight Street, and 
there restore his sight. 

(2) Paul, while praying in Judas' house, has a 
clairvoyant vision of Ananias coming to him and 
restoring his sight. 

Case 13. The Restoration of PauVs Sight 
(9 : 11). Ananias speaks a therapeutic sentence 
accompanying it with laying on of hands. 
Paul's faith may be assumed without question. 
The imposition of hands is apparently the vehicle 
of psychic force. 

Case Uf.. Peter heals jEneas of Palsy (9 : 
33, 34:). ^neas had been bed-ridden with palsy 
for eight years. Peter's therapeutic sentence 
was : " ^neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole ; 
arise and make thy bed." Kesult: "And he 
arose immediately." Could he have arisen unless 
he had had faith in the truth of Peter's state- 
ment ? "We must admit that for all the evidence 
in this particular case he might have done so. 
But the context of previous cases raises a reason- 
able presumption that ^neas confidently ac- 
cepted Peter's statement. ]^o mention is made 
of any vehicle whereby psychic force was con- 
veyed. To offset this, it may be remarked that 
in the majority of telekinetic cases psychic force 
is discharged withotct manual contact ; though in 
therapeutic dynamics manual contact is usual. It 
is at all events certain that Peter's agency was 
necessary for the cure. In other words, the cure 



The Superphysical Works. 301 

was generated through him. How else than 
through his control of psychic force ? 

Case 15. Peter liaises Dorcas from the dead 
(9 : 36-41). The circumstances are as follows : 

(1) Dorcas dies at Lydda near Joppa ; her 
body is washed and laid in an upper chamber. 

(2) The disciples at Lydda sent to Joppa to 
Peter to come to Lydda without delay. Peter 
responds. 

(3) The upper chamber was filled with weep- 
ing widows who presumably were excited and 
hysterical. 

(4) Peter puts them all out of the room ; pre- 
sumably mindful of his Master's example in the 
case of Jairus' daughter. 

(5) In the silence he kneels down and prays. 

(6) He turns to the body and calls out, 
" Tabitha, arise." 

(Y) Tabitha or Dorcas opens her eyes ; sees 
Peter, and sits up. We see the same condition 
observed here as in the case of the raising of 
Jairus' daughter, viz. : the removal of discordant 
elements. We see the intense mental concentra- 
tion of prayer. We see the departed soul reached 
by that something which prayer sends forth — 
psychic force — and, being reached, returning. 
We conjecture that as in the cases of the raising 
of the dead by the Master, where, as in this case, 
death was recent, a residuum of psychic force 
still remained in the body ; — enough to maintain 
rapport or psychic connection between body and 



302 The Super physical Works. 

departed soul. Dr. Gibier in his " Psychism " 
ably maintains the theory of a residuum of 
animic or psychic force remaining for several 
days after decease in cases where death is not 
the result of a radically disorganizing disease. 
If this theory be correct, psychic connection be- 
tween body and soul would not be wholly broken 
until the residual force had entirely left the 
body ; albeit the intelligence is definitely centred 
in the soul. So sure was Dr. Gibier of this 
theory that he directed in his will that his body 
should not be buried until eight days after his 
death. While we are by no means so sure as 
was Dr. Gibier, nevertheless we are impressed 
with the reasonableness of his theory. It cer- 
tainly seems significant to us that all records of 
raising of the dead by Christ and His apostles 
are confined to cases of recent death : — four days 
after decease — as in the case of Lazarus, being 
the longest post-mortem period. 

Case 16. Angelic Appearance to Cornelius 
(10 : 1-6). 

Cornelius sees and hears this angel in a visioii 
or trance (v. 3). It is open to critics to say that 
the angel might have been subjective; though 
the message was veridical. 

Case 17. Peter''s Vision of the Sheet Let 
Down from Heaven (10 : 9f.). 

This was a trance-phenomenon, as expressly 
stated in v. 10. In the trance, however, there is 
revealed to him the great moral principle of 



The Huper physical Works. 303 

human brotherhood in which there is no distinc- 
tion between Jew and Gentile. 

Case 18. A Veridical Clairaudient Message 
to Peter (10 : 19f.). 

" While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit 
said unto him, Arise therefore, and get thee 
down, and go with them " — (the messengers from 
Cornelius) — " doubting nothing " — etc. 

Case 19. Peter'' s Auditors Speah with Tongues 
(10 : 44f.). 

As a result of Peter's preaching, Cornelius and 
his fellow-hearers experience the above-mentioned 
clairvoyant phenomenon ; i. e., insight into and 
power to speak in foreign languages. 

Case W. The Yeridical Prophecy of Agabus 
and others concerning the Great Famine 
(10:28f.). 

Case '21. Peter Delivered from Prison hy an 
Angel {12:4:1.). 

Compare cases 6, 6. Here it may be open to 
critics to say that the dynamic agency was 
telekinetic ; (as in Case 26) and that the angel was 
a product of subjective vision ; for it is recorded 
that Peter "thought he saw a vision " (x. 9). 

Case 22. Paul Smites Elymas the Sorcerer 
with Temporary Blindness (13 : 9f), 

Paul ^'■set his eyes on him^''^ (Elymas) and pro- 
nounced sentence. Apparently a case of sug- 
gestion with psychic force. 

'Again the "hypnotic gaze." 



304 The Superphysical Works. 

Case S3. Paul Heals a Cripple at Lystra 
(14 : 8f .)• 

" Impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his 
mother's womb, who never had walked" — are 
the words describing the ailment. 

There is no specific mention that the malforma- 
tion, if any, was corrected. It is merely stated 
that as a result of Paul's sentence the man 
"leaped and walked." Therefore it is open to 
belief that the impotence was chiefly due to a 
psychosis, and as such removable by suggestion. 
That suggestion was the main factor is evidenced 
by the statement : (v. 9), " The same heard Paul 
speak, who steadfastly beholding him, (fixation 
of gaze) and perceiving (telepathically) that he 
had faith to he healeil, said with a loud voice, 
(thus imparting a strong suggestion) stand up- 
right on thy feet." 

Case '2Ji.. PauVs Clairvoyant Vision of the 
Man of Macedonia (16 : 9). 

This Paul interpreted as a call from the Lord 
to preach to the Macedonians (v. 10). 

Case 25. Paul casts out an ohsessing spirit 
from a Damsel of Thyatira (16 : 16f.). 

Compare chapter iii, " Demonic Possession." 

Case 26. Release of Paid and Silas from 
Prison (16 : 23f.). This on the face of the record 
is a direct telekinetic phenomenon. "At mid- 
night Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises 
unto God : and the prisoners heard them."^ They 

' Darkness again. See pp. 274, 276. 



The Superphysical Works. 305 

thus passed partially into the same psychic state 
as that which spiritists at seances often induce by 
prayer and singing, so that psychic force is pro- 
jected to perform, the desired phenomena. Here 
evidently the desire is that of release, "And 
suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that 
the foundations of the prison were shaken : and 
immediately the doors were opened, and every 
one's bonds were loosed ; " — the other prisoners 
by hearing the prayers and hymns were brought 
into psychic rapport with the apostles. This, be 
it observed in all reverence, is faintly paralleled 
to-day by the telekinetio (and quasi-spiritistic) 
phenomenon of the occult untying of knots and 
loosening of handcuffs, etc., upon the persons of 
mediums in cabinets.'^ In the case of Paul and 
Silas, God utilizes this power of human mentality 
in the interests of His kingdom — viz., the release 
of His messengers. All of God's gifts, both 
normal and supernormal may be either con- 
secrated or perverted and prostituted. E"ote the 
difference, for example, between clairvoyance as 
used by a prophet of God, and as prostituted by 
the common fortune-teller. 

Case 27. Another Pauline Vision (18 : 9f.). 

ISTo comment necessary. 

Case '28. Laying on of PauVs Hands followed 



^ E. g., The tying of a knot in a handkerchief in a corner of a 
room at a distance from the medium, as reported by Sir Wm. 
Crookes. 



306 The Super physical Works. 

hy the Clairvoyant Gift of Tongues (19 : 6). 
Compare Case 19. 

Case W. P syclio-theTapeutics through Faith 
and Fsychio Force (19 : 11, 12). " And God 
wrought special powers ^ by the hands of Paul : 
so XhaXfrom his tody were brought unto the sick 
handkerchiefs or aprons/ and the diseases de- 
parted from them, and the evil spirits went out 
of them." (Compare statement in 5 : 15.) Here 
obviously are the two therapeutic factors of faith 
and psychic force. The sick, who know of Paul's 
healing power, are told that these articles came 
from his person. Hence their faith is established. 
But it is a known fact (see Part II, chapter iv, p. 
15Y) that persons of high psychic development 
can infuse their fluidic aura into material " con- 
ductors." The "Horace Pelletier" experiment 
(chapter iii, Part III, p. 220) is a case in point. 
When this is done voluntarily, as seems to be the 
case in the instance which we are now examining, 

^ Dunameis. 

^ In phenomena of this character, where material objects are 
made the conductors of the psychic aura, the two persons, healer 
and patient, are brought apparently into a circuit, so to speak, as 
complete as though manual contact had been employed. This con- 
stitutes their dynamic rapport. This in tiu-n seems to beget a tele- 
pathic rapport wherein the two minds or spirits blend in the space- 
less medium of the absolute spirit ; the healer's intelligence here 
acting as transmitter and that of the patient as recipient. In cases 
of " Absent Healing " the letter or the messenger bearing the re- 
quest from patient to healer is the material conductor through 
which or through whom first the dynamic and next the tele- 
pathic circuit is established. 



The Superphyaical Works. 307 

the force is charged with the character of the 
volition — here that of healing. 

Case 30. Paul liaises iij> Eutychus (20 : 9f .). 

The text does not warrant our classifying this 
case with certainty as one of the raising of the 
dead: although we are aware that most com- 
mentators do so classify it. The statement is 
that Eutychus, while Paul was preaching, fell 
asleep as he was sitting in a window in the third 
loft ; that he fell therefrom and " was taken up 
dead." Can the diagnosis by those who took him 
up be trusted ? Paul's statement was, " Trouble 
not yourselves ; for his life is in him." He 
restored the ebbing life by contact with the 
young man, viz. : He '•' fell on him, and embra- 
cing him, said" — etc. Apparently an imparta- 
tion of psychic force. 

Case 31. PauVs Immunity to the Bite of a 
Viper (28 : 3f.). This case has already been com- 
mented upon. 

§ 4. Eliminating the cases of angelic mani- 
festation, we perceive, we think, that all the rest 
show (with the possible exception of Case IJi), 
an appreciation on the apostles' part that faith is 
a necessary therapeutic condition. This, be it 
understood, applies only to the strictly thera- 
peutic cases. Whether the apostles were con- 
scious of psychic force as a therapeutic factor is 
more than doubtful. We think we may safely 
say that they did not understand its nature ; 
even though they doubtless knew that their per- 



308 The Superphysical Works. 

sonal presence, accompanied in some instances by 
personal contact, (manual or otherwise) was 
necessary to effect cure. We may say that they 
understood that faith and that personal presence 
were necessities ; but had no scientific conception 
as to the why of either. Their understanding of 
the that came not from intuitive perception, but 
from instruction ; viz. : the instruction of their 
Master who knew and understood both the that 
and the why because " He knew all things." He, 
as we have seen in our study of His super- 
physical works, knew that faith was necessary 
and why it was necessary. 

As we shall show in the chapters that follow, 
Christ knew without any instruction ab extra all 
those psychic conditions which modern science 
knows only as the result of long and labored ex- 
perimentation. 

JSTot so with Christ's followers. All that they 
knew, came apparently from those instructions 
which their Master saw fit to impart to them, 
viz. : the that of faith, and the that of personal 
presence or contact, — " Lay hands on the sick." 
He saw fit to impart to them only the religious 
side of psychic facts and conditions. He left to 
man's naturally developable intellect the task of 
discovering the scientific side, viz., both the why 
and the that of superphysical phenomena. 



CHAPTER lY. 

cheist's psychic agency compaeed with 
that of othees. 

To-wit with Faith-Curers, Eddyites, Spirit-Mediums and Ori- 
ental Thaumaturgists ; showing their lack of scientific in- 
sight as contrasted with Christ ; as well as their subser- 
viency to bizarre, unhinging and anti-social ' ' suggestions ' ' 
from which Christ was free by virtue of His Insight and 
His Harmonious Life. 

§ 1. That Jesus knew the psychic conditions 
which modern science has within the past decade 
or so discovered and formulated, now, we think, 
stands demonstrated. 

We shall in this chapter compare the psychic 
agency of the Nazarene with that of those human 
agents through whose mediation phenomena, the 
same in kind as those produced through Jesus' 
agency, but differing in degree, have been mani- 
fested so as to become subject-matter for scien- 
tific investigation and classification. This com- 
parison, we trust, will lead us to a recognition of 
Jesus' uniqueness among the sons of men. 

The psychic agents with whom we shall deal 
are the various psychic healers of many names, 
the spirit-mediums and the Oriental "Adepts." 
Let us begin with 

309 



310 Christ^ s Psychic Agency. 

§ 2. (a) The Faith- Curers. 

Most of them recognize that success depends 
upon the patient's faith ; at least, they explain 
their failures by alleging lack of faith in the 
patient ; and so far they are scientific and in 
accord with Jesus. But their central belief is 
'that cure is effected in each case by a special 
interposition of Divine Power suspending cosmic 
law, and that faith is merely an exercise so pleas- 
ing to Deity that in response to it God suspends 
nature's order and performs the desired cure. 
Hence, in the estimation of the average " Faith- 
Curist," each case is a miracle in the commonly 
accepted sense of that term — i. e., not a manifes- 
tation of superphysical law, but a suspension of 
cosmic law. This, as has been shown, is contrary 
to the practice both of the I^azarene and of mod- 
ern science. 

§ 3. We consider next, 

(b) The Eddyites or Christian Scientists. 

That the teachings of this cult are both un- 
christian and unscientific is apparent on the 
merest review. The Nazarene and the modern 
scientist both recognize the reality of matter and 
of disease, facts which the Eddyites stoutly deny, 
classifying them as "false beliefs of mortal 
mind." 

That Jesus keenly appreciated the reality of 
matter is shown by His frequent and beautiful 
lessons drawn from nature, by the physical 
fatigue which He confessed through His oft 



Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 311 

withdrawals for rest^ and food, and most con- 
spicuously by His shrinking from the bitter cup 
in the Garden of Gethsemane. His recognition 
of the reality of disease is shown, 

(1) From the fact that He frequently diag- 
nosed the malady, thus recognizing its objective 
existence. Take the following instances : (A) 
The Man with Withered Hand. " Stretch forth 
thine hand." (B) The "Woman with Issue of 
Blood. "Be whole of thy^^fl^p'^^e." (C) Peter's 
Wife's Mother. " He rebuked the fever^ (D) 
The Blind Man of Bethsaida. Jesus " asked him 
if he saw aught." 

(2) The same recognition is shown from Jesus' 
frequent employment of physical therapeutic ad- 
juncts whereby He imparted psychic force, which 
facts in themselves presuppose a diagnosis. (A) 
The Galilean Leper. " Jesus put forth his hand 
and touched him." (B) Peter's Wife's Mother 
(again). " He touched her hand." (C) The Man 
Deaf and Dumb. " He put his fingers in the 
patient's ears and having spit he touched his 
tongue." (D) The Blind Man of Bethsaida 
(again). " He spat upon the patient's eyes and 
put his hands upon him." (E) The Man Born 
Blind. He prescribed washing in the pool of 
Siloam. 

IlTow Eddyites despise both diagnosis and phys- 
ical contact, and logically so from their own 

^ E.g., St. John 4:6, " Jesus therefoi-e being wearied with 
his journey, sat thus on the well." 



312 Christ^ s Psychic Agency. 

premises, inasmuch as the employment of either 
would amount to a confession of the objective 
reality of disease and of matter. The Nazarene's 
employment of both demonstrates the unchris- 
tian character of Eddyite philosophy. 

But that Eddyites have achieved successes in 
therapeutics cannot be denied. We have seen 
that in a limited range of maladies (non-organic) 
they have effected gradual cures even where the 
maladies have been aggravated. We have also 
seen that this is equally true of physicians who 
have employed the suggestive method. We have 
seen also that the Eddyite method is that of 
auto-suggestion. The patient constantly reiter- 
ates and reaffirms the proposition, " Sickness is 
mortal error; God, spirit, truth, is the one re- 
ality " ; a proposition whose first clause is a state- 
ment of falsehood ; and the second, an affir- 
mation of Pantheism. ^Nevertheless therapeutic 
a-wto-suggestion, whether its content be true or 
false, is liable to produce (among a certain limited 
range of functional maladies) a curative result. 
The functional trouble, or nerve-inhibition, is 
removed. 

Homoeopathy has produced results fully equal 
to those of Christian Science, and hetter authenti- 
cated, inasmuch as the homoeopath ist studies 
physiology and anatomy ; yet who that is ac- 
quainted with the ah c of suggestion does not rec- 
ognize that homoeopathy, like Christian Science, 
is a form of suggestive therapeutics ? Who can 



Christ^ s Psychic Agency. 313 

doubt that the efficacy of the "potential decil- 
lionf old dilution " is due solely to suggestion ? 

Mrs. Eddy herself was shrewd enough to see 
this point. In her " Science and Health " — etc., 
she informs us, that she experimented in homoe- 
opathy. "Her experiments in homoeopathy," 
she writes (p. 46) " had made her skeptical as to 
material curative methods." This is the conclu- 
sion to which she was led : " The highest attenu- 
ation of homoeopathy, and the most potent, steps 
out of matter into mind ; and thus it should be 
seen that mind, or metaphysics, is the healer, 
and that there is no efficacy in the drug." (p. 46). 
Thus Mrs, Eddy recognized through homoeopathy 
the principle of suggestion. It was easy indeed 
to clothe this principle in religious garb and pro- 
duce the " Divine Science." 

In Part II, we have explained what the secret 
of Eddyite success is : viz., how auto-suggestion 
is a psychic force which may inhibit the possible 
counter-forces in the strata of consciousness and 
take control of the automatic forces in the sub- 
conscious strata which do the required work ; 
the patient all the while being fully awake. We 
have also pointed out how a healer of "mag- 
netic " personality may in many cases by fixed 
gaze or mental concentration project psychic 
force into the patient's organism. 

ISTeedless to say, neither healer nor patient is 
aware of the psychic process whereby the sug- 
gestion, " sickness is a mortal error " takes effect. 



314 Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 

The healer affirms and the patient believes that 
it is all due to the principles of that "Divine 
Science " which Mrs. Eddy has laid down in her 
book, " Science and Health " — etc. 

Contrast an Eddyite healing transaction with 
any of the therapeutic cases dealt with by the 
great Master Healer : 

Christ recognized that His patients were really 
diseased. The Eddyite healer denies that any dis- 
ease is there. Christ demanded faith from His pa- 
tients, knowing the obstructing power of adverse 
suggestion. The Eddyite pretends that faith is 
entirely unnecessary ; but arouses it just the same 
by subtle suggestions. Christ recognized and 
employed an emanating power which He usually 
communicated by manual contact. The Eddyite 
pretends to scorn this, but owes a large part of his 
success to its unconscious use by the means de- 
scribed a few paragraphs above. Christ evinces 
His knowledge of psycho-therapeutic conditions, 
and uses His knowledge openly and honestly. 
The Eddyite is ignorant of the conditions, but 
has blundered into them ; or else he knows them 
and dishonestly uses them under false names. 

The foregoing section is our last criticism upon 
Christian Science. It contains little, if anything, 
in addition to what has already been said by 
other psychological critics. We submit, how- 
ever, that it is based upon stubborn and incon- 
trovertible psychic fact. We can but conclude 
by saying, in behalf of ourselves and of other 



Chris fs Psychic Agency. 315 

critics along the same lines, that the Eddyites 
can, and probably will, answer in only one way, 
— their stock-in-trade answer to all demolishing 
criticisms : " You have no business to criticise 
our divine science because you do not understand 
it. You are unsympathetic outsiders. Spiritual 
things must be spiritually discerned. ' The mind 
of the flesh is death.' — Get inside the fold; sit at 
our feet ; try our divine methods ; and you will 
become ardent disciples. Then it will be plain 
to you that ' Christian Science is the truth.' " 

To this anticipated answer we can only rejoin : 
"We do understand your methods, because we 
have tried them ; tried them under their real 
names. We are not unsympathetic because we 
know that your methods under their true names 
are exceedingly good. We quarrel not with you 
about things. Our only difference lies in the 
names and terms to be applied to the things and 
facts. We must respectfully but firmly insist 
that we are the truer Christian Scientists. 

§ 4. (c) The Spirit-Medium. 

Here of course we are speaking of honest and 
genuine mediums and not of charlatans and jug- 
glers who pass themselves off as psychics. The 
limitations of genuine mediums may be stated in 
a few words. 

(1) They evidently know the how, but not the 
why of the phenomena which they produce. We 
have been surprised many times at the crass ig- 
norance of psychic principles which even the 



316 Christ'^s Psychic Agency. 

most intelligent mediums have displayed. By 
them every superphysical phenomenon is attrib- 
uted without question to discarnate spirit-agency. 
They seem utterly to ignore the independent 
powers of the incarnate soul in telekinesis, telep- 
athy and clairvoyance. 

The auto-suggestion, " All is the work of our 
discarnate friends " seems to have taken complete 
possession of them, and to have destroyed their 
power of discriminating between mundane telep- 
athy and super-mundane agency. 

In contrast with this Christ " knew what was 
in man " and " perceived their thoughts " by His 
own constant rapport with the Infinite. He clair- 
voyantly saw Nathaniel praying under the fig- 
tree and told him so afterwards, to the latter's 
astonishment ; but knew better than to attribute 
it to spirit-agency. 

When He did materialize two spirits upon the 
Holy Mount, He saw to it that the witnessing 
disciples should recognize them as such. But in 
His " mighty works " He attributed the power 
to His own unmediated agency ; or rather to His 
Heavenly Father working through Him. 

(2) Spirit-mediums often resort to the trance- 
state ; which undoubtedly is a condition insuring 
that self-confidence so indispensable to the pro- 
duction of their phenomena. (See Part II, pp. 
168-lTO.) 

Christ never entered into the trance-state to 
produce His manifestations. We shall see pres- 



Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 317 

ently wliy it was unnecessary for Him to 
do so. 

It is a well-known fact that he who frequently 
induces trance places himself in great danger ; 
the danger, namely, of ultimate mental unhinge- 
ment. Man's normal state on the earth-plane is 
that in which the psychic forces in the strata of 
consciousness shall act without artificial interfer- 
ence. True it is that when they act wrongly an 
artificial interference through hypnosis may be 
highly beneficial. But N^ature and ISTature's God 
have arranged our psychic forces for normal 
work upon the earth-plane. When we coerce 
them into abnormal work, no matter how worthy 
our motives may be, we are running up an ac- 
count with E'ature which we may have to pay 
with compound interest when we least expect it. 

Christ's abstension from the trance-state as a 
condition for the performance of His works is 
evidence that He understood its dangers. 

§ 5. (d) The Orietital Adepts or Yogis. 

That these psychic agents have produced many 
astounding phenomena we cannot well doubt in 
the face of the reliable testimony which is at 
hand,^ 

The eight steps of Raja Yoga through which 
the aspirant must pass in order to become a Yogi 
or Adept are calculated to bring him into won- 

^E. g., Louis Jacolliots' " Occult Science in India ; " a work 
which did not come to our notice until after our ' * Bibliography ' ' 
had gone to press. 



318 Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 

derful control over his psychic forces. He be- 
comes transformed however from a man into a 
mystic who dwells continually in a state of qui- 
escence and holds in supreme contempt every- 
thing which makes a man a man, "We say this 
advisedly after a careful perusal of Yivekananda's 
lectures upon the " Vedanti Philosophy " ^ to 
which we refer the reader. 

The aims of Jesus and of Yogism are as wide 
asunder as the poles of heaven. Here are some 
of the precepts of Yivekananda : " What will 
be the result of the constant practice of this 
higher concentration? All old tendencies of 
restlessness and dulness will be destroyed, as 
well as the tendencies of goodness too. . . 
Those good and evil tendencies will suppress 
each other, and there will remain the soul in all 
its glorious splendor (Sic.) untrameled by either 
good or bad " (Lectures, p. 121). " When people 
are happy, we ought to be happy, a7id to the 
wiclced we must he indifferent " (p. 179). " Even 
love is selfish, and the Yogi says that in the end 
we shall find that even the love of husbands and 
wives and children and friends slowly decays. 
Decadence seizes everything in this life. It is 
only when everything, even love, fails, that, with 
a flash, man finds out how vain, how dreamlike 
is this world. Then he catches a glimpse of re- 
nunciation, catches a glimpse of the beyond" 
(p. 162). 

» N. Y., The Baker & Taylor Co., 1889. 



Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 319 

" Isolation, that is the goal ; when that is at- 
tained, the soul will find that it was alone all the 
time, and it required no one to make it happy " 
(p. 206). 

" Therefore, know that thou art He ; thou art 
the God of this Universe, and all these various 
ideas, I am a man, or a woman, or sick, or 
healthy, or strong, or weak, or I hate, or I love, 
or have a little power, or more power, are but 
hallucinations. Away with them ! " (p. 246.) 
(This, by the way, is Eddyism carried to its 
logical Pantheistic conclusion.) 

The system of Yogism is in its methods wholly 
contemplative, introspective, quietistic, ascetic. 
Its moral result in the individual is the ascend- 
ancy of the subjective element ; in society, the 
condemnation and dissolution of the social fabric 
by the segregation of the individual therefrom ; 
in politics, the impotence of the nations in which 
the system predominates, unfitting them to cope 
with the keenly ambitious Occidentals ; hence, 
the political subjection of India and China to 
European powers. 

The system of Jesus, on the other hand, com- 
bines the methods of introspection and objectivity 
in perfect balance. The follower of Jesus must 
die to self and bear his daily cross. He must be 
crucified with Christ and buried with Him, ma- 
king not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts 
thereof. He must pray without ceasing and hold 
his spirit in constant communion with the Father 



S20 Ghrisfs Psychic Agency. 

of spirits. All this is on the introspective side of 
Christian discipleship. Yet all this is but the 
means to a higher moral end, the latter being the 
uplifting of society and the molding of it into 
the Christlikeness. " ISTot every one," said Jesus, 
" that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the 
will of my Father which is in heaven ; " and 
" Inasmuch as ye have done it — or done it not — 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye 
have done it — or done it not — unto me." 

The perfect moral balance in Jesus' system 
between egoism (as distinguished from its per- 
verted form egotism) and altruism is apparent in 
His commandment, " Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself'' — the higher, godlike self being 
here contemplated. " Therefore, love," writes 
Jesus' greatest follower, " is the fulfilling of the 
law." Another follower writes, " Pure religion 
and undefiled before God and the Father is this, 
to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic- 
tion (objectivity) and to keep himself unspotted 
from the world " (subjectivity). 

Jesus' teachings, if carried out, produce the 
ideal individual and the ideal social fabric. The 
individual must withdraw himself from the con- 
taminations of the world, yet mingle in the thick 
of those temporal concerns which are in them- 
selves legitimate, conquering them for Christ. 
Jesus frequently communed with God in desert 
places ; yet He was styled by His enemies as a 



ChrisVs Psychic Agency. 821 

gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of 
publicans and sinners ; being unfavorably con- 
trasted with His ascetic forerunner, John the 
Baptist. 

The religion of Jesus has imparted strength 
and virility to the nations wherein it prevails. 
It has made them possessors of the earth, though 
in many cases, sad to confess, at the expense of 
the Golden Eule. When once the great Christian 
powers of the Twentieth Century free themselves 
from the Rule of Gold and place themselves 
under the ^azarene's Golden Rule, that strength 
and virility which belongs to them will then have 
its Christian value, — namely, that of the preser- 
vation of peace on earth and good-will towards 
men, of which Jesus' life is the exemplification. 

The world-wide difference between the Ori- 
ental systems and the system of Jesus may be 
expressed by saying that the aim of the former 
is the attenuation of life here and hereafter, 
whereas the aim of the latter is the expansion of 
life here and hereafter. 

How absurd, in view of this, is that passing 
fad of scholarship which seeks to prove that 
Jesus was secretly educated by Oriental adepts ! 
That the Nazarene borrowed His teachings and 
methods from Buddhistic sources ! If He did so. 
His teachers must have felt chagrined at the 
turning upside down to which their Pupil treated 
their teachings. 

§ 6. It now remains to show, in contrast to 



322 GhrisVs Psychic Agency. 

the above, how Jesus of Nazareth came to know 
the conditions whereby He wrought His super- 
physical works, as well as to bring out the 
various points of uniqueness. 

First, as to His knowledge of the conditions : 

That He possessed a scientific insight into 
them has, we think, been fully demonstrated. 
Whence did He derive this insight ? 

Not from Oriental sources, as has been shown. 
Did it come from Egypt ? Egyptian thaumatur- 
gists, if any of the old line were surviving in 
Christ's time, which is extremely doubtful, seem 
to have been what to-day would be called 
" mediums." Their thaumaturgy was the result 
of passive, trance and auto-hypnotic states. Not 
so was Christ's. 

Was it derived from the Essenes ? We do not 
know that the Essenes produced any super- 
physical phenomena at all. We do know that 
Christ's entire attitude was diametrically opposed 
to the root-principle of Essenism, which was 
asceticism. With some plausibility John the 
Baptist may be connected with Essenism on ac- 
count of his asceticism. But there is neither 
record nor tradition that John ever produced any 
superphysical phenomena ; and there is a very 
distinct record of the striking contrast between 
that prophet and the Christ. 

That Christ's knowledge of psychic conditions 
came not from the orthodox Judaism in the 
midst of which He was humanly reared, is 



Christ's Psychic Agency. 323 

evident to any one at all acquainted with the 
Judaism of Christ's day ; divided as it was be- 
tween Sadduceeism, which denied angels, spirits 
and a future state ; and Pharisaism, which was a 
bloodless code of legalistic quibbles. 

There is not the faintest scintilla of evidence 
that Jesus' human education differed in any 
respect from that of the other Jewish youths of 
His day ; viz., a course of instruction in the 
Hebrew law and prophets given partly at home 
and partly in the local synagogue school. 

When He began His public ministry, He as- 
tonished the doctors at Jerusalem, who recognized 
at once that He was a man of learning, albeit a 
simple Galilean peasant. Their astonishment 
was voiced in the exclamation, " How knoweth 
this man learning, having never learned ? " He 
had received in Galilee what would be called to- 
day a " common school " education. He had not 
taken the technical course prescribed for rabbis. 
All that He had acquired over and above His 
common school education He had acquired of and 
by Himself. But the superiority of that which 
He had thus acquired profoundly impressed the 
Jerusalem rabbis. The common people were 
drawn to Him because " He spake as one having 
authority, and not as the scribes." He taught 
with an authority which was felt by scribes and 
people alike, though they were puzzled to dis- 
cover whence it came. He taught a doctrine 
concerning God and man which was catholic in 



324 Christ^ s Psychic Agency. 

contrast to the narrow, sectarian doctrines of 
Judaism. Its catholicity was, in the eyes of the 
ruling authorities, revolutionary. He taught a 
relationship as subsisting between the Father 
and Himself, a relationship of whose nature He 
and His Father alone understood, ^ which teach- 
ing caused the rulers to seek His life.^ This 
wonderful Teacher, who evinced His inerrant 
knowledge of psychic law and conditions, 
whencesoever He derived it, answered the ex- 
clamation of the rabbis, " How knoweth this man 
learning, having never learned ? " — answered it 
by the following statement : " My doctrine is not 
mine, but his that sent me " (St. John 7 : 16). 

We have here the word of this Ideal Man, 
whom none could convict of sin, that His in- 
struction was derived directly from God. In the 
language of to-day, it was the result of Intuition, 
and not of man-given instruction. Kightly does 
Dr. Hudson speak of the Nazarene's insight as 
"His intuitive perception of the laws of the 
human soul, a mental attribute in which He 
stands unique on the earth." There is every 
evidence that this perception was indeed intuitive 
and not man-derived, and no evidence to the con- 
trary. Hence, then, we have one element in 
Christ's uniqueness. 

§ Y. But this element — His unique intuitive 
insight into spiritual laws and conditions, — ex- 

» St. Matt. 11 : 27 ; St. Luke 10 : 22. 
2 St. John 8: 58, 59. 



GhrisVs Psychic Agency. 325 

plains another feature in which Christ stands 
uniquely contrasted with other psychic agents, 
viz., His exemption from the necessity of enter- 
ing into the " psychic " state ; i. e., into passivity, 
trance, or auto-hypnosis, in order to produce His 
superphysical phenomena. There is no record, 
as Dr. Hudson keenly observes, that Christ ever 
entered into the psychic state to produce any of 
His phenomena. Why was He exempt from the 
necessity of entering into the " psychic " state ? 
We need only to remind ourselves that the in- 
duction of this state is necessary to insure that 
self-confidence so indispensable to the control of 
one's psychic forces ; a confidence which is liable 
to be interfered with when the forces in the 
strata of consciousness are active. 

But if a psychic agent possess a complete in- 
sight into psychic laws and conditions, interfer- 
ences from the consciousness strata are impos- 
sible ; for all such interferences come in the form 
of suggestions of failure. In other words, these 
adverse suggestions are the forces which interfere 
with psychic success / and their strength is de- 
rived fromj the agenfs partial hnowledge of 
psychic laws and conditions. 

Given an agent with complete knowledge of 
psychic laws and conditions, and we have one in 
whom there are no adverse forces to he suppressed. 
We have already shown that Christ possessed such 
hnoxoledge. Hence, there was no necessity for 
Him to induce the trance condition. 



326 Chrisfs Psychic Agency. 

§ 8. Christ's unique exemption from the ne- 
cessity of entering into psychic states to produce 
superphysical phenomena, then, is due to His 
unique spiritual insight. The consequence is that 
He, unlike other psychic agents, manifests only 
divine truth. 

To Him therefore that later warning written 
by one of His apostles would have no application, 
viz., "Believe not every spirit, but try the 
spirits, whether they are of God " {1 John 4 : 1). 
Ko inferior spirit, either ignorant or malicious, 
could deceive Him with spurious revelations be- 
cause His normal state was that of rapport with 
the Absolute ; a condition in which all spiritual 
truth was lucid to Him. 

In the case of those who commune with dis- 
carnate spirits the possibility of deception is al- 
ways present ; for the rapport in such a case 
represents not rapport with the Absolute, but 
telepathic rapport with a finite discarnate intelli- 
gence and because finite, limited in knowledge. 
Whatever communion Christ may have had with 
such intelligences, as for instance with Moses and 
Elias, the possibility of being deceived was al- 
ways excluded by that constant rapport with the 
Absolute to which we have referred ; in other 
words, by His inerrant spiritual intuition.^ 

' All men have spiritual intuition, but it comes to the sur- 
face only, as it were, in fitful flashes giving us passing glimpses 
of some aspect of spiritual truth. The light of Christ's spiritual 
intuition seemed to bathe His vphole nature and to shine with i- 



Ghrisfs Psychic Agency. 327 

§ 9. Christ's manifestation of the truth, and 
nothing but the truth, is furthermore illustrated 
by the use which He made of His superphysical 
agency. His employment of it was entirely self- 
less. It was always in the service of His 
Heavenly Father ; never for His own physical or 
temporal benefit. Whenever He employed it He 
did so either for the uplifting of His fellow-men, 
or to impress upon His disciples some principle 
of the Kingdom of Grod. 

These propositions are so self-evident to all 
students of the life of Christ that we need only 
state them to be sure that their truth will be 
recognized. 

§ 10. In concluding this chapter, we quote 

steady unflickering glow. His disciples by flashes of inspiration 
would see some aspect of the truth ; while at other times they 
would fall into gross error. One of these flashes was that 
lucidity which for the moment illumined Simon Peter's soul 
and manifested itself in his confession of the Master's Divinity 
and Messiahship. That it was a lucidity which resulted from 
passing rapport with the Absolute, Christ affirmed in His bene- 
diction upon that disciple, ' ' Blessed art thou . . . for flesh 
and Mood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build my church, and I will give unto thee (and 
unto all my disciples, cf . Matt. 18 : 18) the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven" (Matt. 16:16-19). The rock and foundation 
and chief cornerstone is Christ and all that Christ stands for. 
He holds in his grasp the keys of the kingdom of heaven who, 
grounded upon this Eock, keeps his soul open and receptive to 
the light and life which come from "the Father of Spirits." 
Thus we see that the key to the spiritual world is telepathy and 
clairvoyance (Cf . Acts 10 : 3-5 ; 2 Cor. 4 : 3, 4, etc.). 



328 GhrisVs Psychic Agency. 

some pertinent extracts from chapter viii of Dr. 
Hudson's " Scientific Demonstration of the 
Future Life " : 

"Christ Himself was the most stupendous 
psychic phenomenon the world has ever seen. 
He is the one example of a being in whom the 
synchronism of development, physical, intellec- 
tual, psychical, moral, was absolutely perfect. In 
Him the objective and subjective faculties pre- 
served, at all times under all circumstances, an 
exquisitely harmonious balance. His reason was 
always in the ascendancy. He never allowed 
Himself to be placed in such a mental condition 
as to render it possible for Him to be dominated 
by a false or vicious suggestion. He never exer- 
cised His psychic power except for the accom- 
plishment of some good object." 

He demonstrated His exclusive right to say, 
" I am the light of the world. He that f olloweth 
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the 
light of life. ... I am the way, the truth, 
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, 
but by me." 



CHAPTEE Y. 

" THAT JESTJS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD." 

Christ's psychic or spiritual Inerrancy being demonstrated, His 
claim to unique Divine Sonship must be accepted. 

§ 1. If Christ in His superphysical works em- 
ployed means utilizable by human psychics, what 
becomes of the doctrine of His divinity ? 

We reply that it would be left wholly un- 
touched. His employment of conditions as such, 
whether physical or spiritual, has no bearing 
whatever upon the question of His deity. All 
conditions, no matter what their nature, are in 
the last analysis of God's ordering. If God is a 
God of law and order, and if Christ truly mani- 
fested God, we would expect to find Him em- 
ploying conditions rather than breaking through 
them, or setting them aside. 

We submit that it is not by Christ's super- 
physical works as such that His divinity is 
demonstrable ; for did He not assure His dis- 
ciples that they would do mightier works than 
His own ?^ "Because I go to my Father." — He 
there intimated that He would in heaven become 
a source of spiritual outpouring whereby His 
own mighty works would be reproduced. Those 

>St. John 14: 12. 
329 



330 Jesus is the Christ. 

who were en rapport with that proceeding Spirit 
could do those same mighty works. 

Again, He prophesied that great signs and 
wonders would be done by false prophets so as- 
tounding as to deceive, if it were possible, the 
very elect.^ Possibly these " wonders " would be 
done by the agency of "the spiritual hosts of 
wickedness in the heavenly places " ^ of which 
Paul speaks.^ 

At all events, our present point is that super- 
physical phenomena as stick are not conclusive 
proofs of any doctrine respecting Christ's person. 

We take it that the real proof of His divinity 
rests upon His own affirmation of it ; that the 
proof of His authority to affirm it depends upon 
His demonstrated knowledge of all the laws and 
relations of soul and spirit ; and we submit that 
such knowledge on His part stands demonstrated 
from His acquaintance with those psychic con- 
ditions which modern research has brought to 
light. 

This being admitted, we now find ourselves 
led one step further ; namely, to the recognition 
of the fact that He was entitled to speak with 
authority upon the nature of God, the Infinite 
Spirit, and the relations of God to man ; and 
lastly, upon the relations of Himself to both God 
and man. 

' Matt. 24 : 24 ; Mark 13 : 22. 

2 Eph. 6 : 12. 

3 For the test of good or bad agency see 1 John 4 : 1. 



Jesus is the Christ. 331 

§ 2. It remains, therefore, only to enquire, 
What did. He say as to those relations ? We 
may now consider ourselves transferred to the 
field of historic record. 

Of God He taught that He was an Infinite 
Spirit and at the same time a Being who stands 
in direct personal relationship with each indi- 
vidual son of man in such wise as to be called 
upon and communed with as a Father. He 
tauffht that God's will is that no man should 
perish but that all should win eternal life. To 
this end Jesus proclaimed that He Himself had 
come into the world : " God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son, that all 
who believe in him should not perish but have 
everlasting life." 

§ 3. This brings us to the consideration of 
that unique relationship which, according to 
Jesus' teachings, subsisted between Himself and 
God on the one hand, and Himself and humanity 
on the other. 

Two titles were employed by the Master, one to 
indicate the Godward and the other the manward 
aspect of His being. The former was " Son of 
God," and the latter " Son of Man." The lat- 
ter is used far more frequently than the former ; 
but whenever the Master refers to His relation- 
ship to the Father, under the title " Son," His 
Divine Sonship is understood, as will presently 
appear. The title " Son of Man " has reference 
primarily to His Messiahship, as by that title the 



832 Jesus is the Christ. 

Messiah is called in the Book of Daniel. It is, 
therefore, in the Master's estimation a unique 
title ; that is, one which is appropriate to Him- 
self alone in a technical sense ; though in a loose 
and general sense every human being is a " son 
of man." The same thing is true of the title 
" Son of God." God being the creator of men, 
every human being is a " Son of God " ; but, as 
will presently be shown, Jesus looked upon His 
Divine Sonship as unique and different from the 
divine sonship of human beings. As He looked 
upon Himself as the Son of Man, so also He re- 
gards Himself as the Son of God. 

The passages which show His estimation of 
the uniqueness of His Divine Sonship are numer- 
ous, both in the synoptics and in the fourth 
gospel. The following are selected as the most 
conspicuous : 

" God so loved the world that he gave his 
only begotten Son " (St. John 3:16). " Before 
Abraham was I am" — an utterance which was 
interpreted by the monotheistic Jews as blasphe- 
mous (St. John 8: 58). "What think ye of 
Christ ? " the Master enquired of the Pharisees. 
" Whose Son is he ? They say unto him. The 
Son of David. He saith unto them, How then 
doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying. The 
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right 
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool ? 
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son ? 
And no man was able to answer him a word " 



Jesus is the Christ. 333 

(St. Matt. 20 : 42-46 ; St. Mark 12 : 35 f.; St. Luke 
20 : 41 f.). 

The Master here shows that though as Son of 
Man or Messiah He is by lineal descent of David's 
seed, yet inasmuch as David speaks of Him in 
spirit under the title "Lord," or Jehovah, His 
fleshly descent does not explain His being or 
nature. There appertains to Him another Son- 
ship which the learned students of Messianic gen- 
ealogy — the Scribes and Pharisees — have over- 
looked. 

Again : " No man knoweth the Son but the 
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, 
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will 
reveal him " (St. Matt. 11 : 2T ; St. Luke 10 : 22). 

These are perhaps His most emphatic words 
anywhere recorded as showing the uniqueness of 
His relationship to the Father. He here states 
that His sonship is of a nature which only God 
understands. But the divine sonship to which 
every man is born was commonly understood. 
The Hebrew prophets had written about it. So 
was the Fatherhood of God commonly under- 
stood. Even the Greek poet, Pindar, had written 
that man was the offspring of God. But it was 
reserved for Jesus to reveal that which no man 
knew or could know, viz., God's eternal Father- 
hood — the Eternal Father of the Eternal Son. 
How appropriately after this utterance follow 
those words of universal invitation recorded by 
St. Matthew : " Come unto me all ye that labor 



334 Jesus is the Christ 

and are heavy laden and I will give you rest " ; 
— an invitation whicli none but the eternal Son 
of God could give without presumptuousness. 

Again, " I am the way, the truth and the life ; 
no man cometh unto the Father but by me " 
(St. John 14 : 6). This statement opens the way 
to a new consideration. Jesus did not say, as 
the leaders of other ethnic religions have said in 
effect, " The principles which I teach, the laws 
which I reveal, these form the way, the truth and 
the life." He might have said that with perfect 
consistency ; but He said something more ; — pre- 
cisely that " something more " which distin- 
guishes Jesus in His claims from other ethnic re- 
ligious teachers ; and this " something more " is 
that which is contained in the " I am's " of Jesus. 
He proclaims Himself to be more than the " Way- 
Shower " ; He proclaims that He is the way, that 
He is the truth ; that He is the life. He places 
His own person as the corner-stone of His system. 
He who denies this gives the lie to Jesus' solemn 
declarations ; gives the lie to Him who proves 
Himself to be entitled to speak with all authority 
upon the laws and relations of soul and spirit. 

Some more of the " I am's " of the Christ : 
" I am the light of the world. ... I am the 
resurrection and the life. ... I and my 
Father are one. ... I am the vine, ye are 
the branches. ... I am the Good Shepherd. 
. . . I am the bread of life." 

I^ote that in this same discourse in which He 



Jesus is the Christ. 335 

proclaims Himself to be the way, the truth and 
the life and the bridge way between mankind 
and the Father, He asserts that belief in Him is 
the condition whereby the disciples may be en- 
abled to perform greater works than He Himself 
had done (St. John 14 : 12). 

What does this mean ? It means that He sees 
in Himself the incarnation, the embodied princi- 
ple of all cosmic law ; for " the world was made 
by him"— that same world which "knew him 
not." Faith in Him, even though no greater 
than a grain of mustard seed, is the gateway 
through which comes the divine force which 
heals the sick, raises the dead, casts out demons, 
removes mountains ; for He embodies cosmic law 
and is the source of cosmic energy and life. JSe 
as the e')nbodiment thereof is hound to respond to 
the outpoiiring of a faith sufficiently great, — 
bound by the law which He ordained from the 
beginning and which admits of no suspension. 
He responds not from caprice, as the despot re- 
sponds to some flattering petition and refuses to 
respond to some other petition couched in less 
flattering terms ; but He responds according to 
the eternal law of which He is at once the author 
and the embodiment. 

Does this seem to place all petitions, worthy 
and unworthy alike, upon the same footing, pro- 
vided only that the faith of the petitioner is 
intense enough ? Such a possibility is checked 
by the fact — the psychic fact — that an un- 



336 Jesus is the Christ. 

worthy petition carries in itself a weakness 
which reacts upon the faith of the petitioner and 
negatives its efScacy. Yet unworthy and trivial 
manifestations of psychic power do unquestion- 
ably abound. This only shows that Christ has 
left to His followers the completion of His re- 
demptive work; and that upon their fulfilment 
of the apostle's exhortation, "Be instant in 
prayer. . . . Pray without ceasing," depends 
the cancellation and negativing of faith mani- 
fested by the unworthy for ignoble ends. Surely 
then " the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous 
_man availeth much ! " How much religious as 
well as psychic truth is contained in that patristic 
saying, " To pray is to work ! " The prayers of 
the saints are indeed mighty factors in the ac- 
complishment of Christ's redemptive work. 

To cite two more passages in demonstration of 
the fact that Christ stands before the world as 
its embodied life-principle, we may refer to these : 
(1) " For as the Father hath life in himself, so 
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself " 
(St. John 5 : 26). (2) " Therefore doth my Father 
love me, because I lay down my life that I might 
take it again. JVo man taketli it from tne, but I 
lay it down of myself — I have power to lay it 
down, and I have power to taJce it again " (St. 
John 10 : 17, 18). 

§ 4. We may perceive from these last quoted 
words the value which Christ's divinity has in 
imparting to His death and resurrection eternal 



Jesus is the Christ. 337 

significance. As respecting the former, these 
words show the willingness of His final sacrifice ; 
that it was entirely a free-will offering, even ac- 
cording to the prophecy of the Psalmist : " Burnt- 
offerings and sacrifice for sin hast thou not re- 
quired ; then said I, Lo, I come ; in the volume 
of the book it is written of me to fulfil thy will, 
O God ; I am content to do it, yea thy law is 
within my heart " (Psalm 40 : 9, 10). 

As to His resurrection, it has been contended 
that His divinity forms no assurance that we too 
shall rise from the dead. But to this St. Paul's 
reply is sufficient : " Knowing that he (i. e., 
the divine life-principle,— God), which raised up 
the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise us up 
also hy Jesus " — i. e., by ih.Q faith which we have 
in Him who has " life in himself " ; and who is 
the " resurrection and the life." 

"Well spake the evangelist as he completed the 
record of the gospel, saying : " These are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God ; and that believing ye might 

have LIFE THEOUGH HIS NAME." 



CHAPTEE YI. 

THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH OF HEBEEW 
PKOPHECY. 

Showing that His life and works consummate a phenomenon 
of veridical prevision. 

§ 1. Having undertaken the task of studying 
the gospel's superphysical features in the light 
of established psychic facts, we find that there is 
one further feature which must claim our atten- 
tion ; and that is Messianic prophecy as fulfilled 
in Him around whom the gospel centres. 

Gospel " miracles," so-called, are of two classes, 
first, those which are discrete and separate, as 
the Immaculate Conception, the works of heal- 
ing, the " Mighty Works " or dunameis, and the 
resurrection ; secondly, those which are of a 
general and continuous character pertaining to 
Christ's personality. Our last chapter dealt with 
one of this last-named class, — Christ's unique Di- 
vine Sonship. Now we shall consider the Mes- 
sianic element in His personality. 

§ 2. It must be obvious to every reader of 
the Kew Testament that of all the superphysical 
evidences appealed to by the first preachers of 
the gospel, the evidence from fulfilled prophecy 
stands second only to that of the resurrection. 

338 



Jesus is the 3Iessiah. 339 

For the sake of concreteness we shall confine 
our study of this topic to a consideration of two 
propositions : 

(1) Yeridical prevision or fulfilled prophecy 
in general is a well-established psychic phenome- 
non. 

(2) Christ's life and works stand as the fulfil- 
ment of Old Testament Messianic prophecies, 

§ 3. Upon the first of these propositions we 
need not detain ourselves ; for in chapter ii, 
Class lY of Part II, we have, we think, placed 
in evidence sufficient cases to establish ve- 
ridical prevision as a fact beyond dispute. Its 
modus operandi we have discussed in chapter iv, 
§ 19 of Part II ; where we were constrained to 
conclude that veridical prevision results from 
rapport with the Absolute. We may pass on 
therefore to our second proposition. 

§ 4. That Christ's life and works as repre- 
sented in the gospels are facts of history has, we 
trust, been made plain by our "psychic verifica- 
tion " in the foregoing chapters. 

"Were they foretold by the ancient Hebrew 
prophets ? 

We answer that in vain may " Higher Criti- 
cism " divide up prophetical books once assigned 
to one author ; in vain may it postpone the dates 
of certain prophetical books for centuries beyond 
the age in which they were formerly supposed 
to have been written ; in vain vndbj it assign as 
references to local contemporary events words 



340 Jesus is the Messiah. 

which have commonly been regarded as Messianic 
in their outlook. After conceding to the severest 
critics all that they have thus claimed, we shall 
find, if we have eyes to see, outlined in the He- 
brew prophets a Messianic portrait of a future 
ideal, represented sometimes as a dispensation, 
sometimes as a glorious theocracy, sometimes as 
a prophet, sometimes as a priest, sometimes as a 
servant of Jehovah righteous and faithful in the 
midst of suffering, in which or in whom both 
Jews and Gentiles shall find their perfect con- 
summation. That this portrait in any of these 
general aspects is a veridical dream is evinced by 
its highest ethical and spiritual fulfilment in the 
prophetic, kingly and priestly ojfices combined 
in the historic Jesus and the dispensation which 
He ushers in. 

§ 5. Says the eminent German critic. Dr. 
Edward Riehm, in his great work on " Messianic 
Prophecy " (p. 311) : " The circumstances, how- 
ever, that in several instances the coincidence 
. . . between prophecy and fulfilment is of so 
special a nature as to include even particular ex- 
ternal incidents, * can hardly, we judge, be con- 
sidered by a living faith in God otherwise than 
as divinely intended . . . such coincidences 
are designed as finger-posts, pointing to the 
deeper and more essential connection between 
prophecy and fulfilment — as external holdfasts, 
aiding a still weak understanding, and attracting 

^ Italics ours. 



Jesus is the Messiah. 341 

attention to the fulfilment of prophecy in such a 
way as to encourage a more penetrating investi- 
gation into the nature of the bond that unites 
these two correlates of revelation." 

This recognition of coincidence between spe- 
cific prophetic passages and fulfilment in par- 
ticular external incidents in Christ's life is signifi- 
cant, coming as it does from a critic who writes 
with an anti-supernatural bias, from a critic 
who lays the chief emphasis upon the larger 
and more general outlook of Messianic Proph- 
ecy — i. e., who treats it as a national hope and 
ideal. 

The same critic goes on to say (pp. 311, 312) : 
" Such was obviously the design of Christ in ar- 
ranging His Messianic processional entry into 
Jerusalem, in the literal conformity to the words 
of Zechariah 9 : 9. Take for another instance of 
coincidence Micah's prophecy (5 : 2), that the 
Messiah will proceed from Bethlehem ... a 
prediction which, if the historicity of the record 
upon the point can be otherwise established, was 
fulfilled not only in its ideal substance but liter- 
ally. For arguments establishing the historicity 
of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem " (observes 
Dr. Eiehm in a foot-note), "see B. Weiss Das 
Leben Jesu,^ I. pp. 236ff." 

The same critic continues : " Quite unassail- 
able, however, by historical criticism is the re- 
markable coincidence of the New Testament 

' Italics ours. 



342 Jesus is the Messiah. 

record of fulfilment with the prophecy in 
Isaiah 9 : If., according to which the light of the 
Messianic salvation was to shed its rays upon the 
tribal districts of Zebulon and JSTaphtali, the 
region by the sea of Gennesaret, and the Jordan, 
— An equally remarkable agreement, affecting 
even details, between the record of New Testa- 
ment fulfilment and the words of the Old Testa- 
ment scripture is to be found, moreover, in rela- 
tion to several points which can be regarded as 
prophecies referring to Christ only, in virtue of 
their typical significance. The most striking in- 
stance of this is the twenty-second Psalm, which 
represents to every Christian eye an unmistaka- 
ble picture of the crucified Christ surrounded by 
His triumphant foes. The agreement also of the 
servant of God, as delineated in prophecy, with 
the picture of Christ extends to several quite 
minute points " (Isaiah 42 : 2f. ; 50 : 5ff. ; 52 : 14f., 
and chapter 53 — which passages Dr. Kiehm refers 
to in a foot-note). 

Indeed the remarkable and startling corre- 
spondences between detached prophetic passages 
and external incidents in Jesus' earthly career 
are so numerous as to justify the rebuke which 
the risen Lord administered to the two disciples 
to whom He made Himself known at Emmaus 
in the breaking of the bread : " O fools, and slow 
of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
spoken ! " (Luke 24 : 25.) It is there recorded 
that, " Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 



Jesus is the Messiah. 343 

he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the 
things concerning himself." 

§ 6. We may well conjecture some of the 
most pointed prophetic passages which He may 
then have cited : 

I. That He was the seed of the woman who 
had by overcoming sin and death bruised the 
serpent's head (Gen. 3 : 15). 

II. That He was that prophet raised up from 
among Moses' brethren like unto Moses, speaking 
all that Jehovah commanded him (Deut. 18 : 15). 

III. The Virgin's Son (Isa. 7 : UcL ; Jer. 
31 : 22). 

IV. Of the seed of Abraham in whom all the 
families of the earth shall be blessed (Gen. 12 : 3). 

V. The Shiloh of Judah to whom the gath- 
ering of the people shall be (Gen. 49 : 10). 

VI. Of the House of David (2 Sam. 7 : 12-15 ; 
1 Chron. lY : 11-14; 2 Chron. 6 : 42 ; Ps. 81 : 4-36 ; 
Isa. 9:7; 11 : 1 ; 55 : 3, 4; Jer. 23 : 5, 6 ; Amos 
9 : 11). 

VII. Born at Bethlehem, the city of David 
(Micah 5 : 2). 

VIII. The preacher to the lowly and the 
healer of diseases (Isa. 61 : 1). 

IX. The righteous servant of Jehovah (Isa. 
62 : 13). 

X. The light that radiated from Zebulon and 
Naphtali (Isa. 9 : If.). 

XI. The exalted, extolled and High One whom 
kings despise because they see in Him lowliness 



344 Jesus is the Messiah. 

and humiliation about which expounders of the 
prophets had told them nothing (Isa. 52 : 13-15). 

XII. His visage marred by a thorn-crown 
{Ibid. 5 : 14). 

XIII. The sprinkler of many nations {Ibid. 
5 : 15). 

XIY. Despised and rejected of men (Isa. 
53:3). 

XY. Wounded for our transgressions (Ibid.). 

XYI. Bruised for our iniquities (53 : 5). 

XYII. Oppressed and afflicted (53 : T). 

XYIII. Brought as a lamb to the slaughter 
(Ibid.). 

XIX. Pierced in His hands and feet (Psahn 
22 : 16cf. ; Zechariah 13 : 6). 

XX. His garments parted among His slayers, 
and lots cast for His vesture (Psalm 22 : 18). 

XXI. Who received gall for His meat and 
vinegar for His drink (Psalm 69 : 21). 

XXII. Who made intercession for the trans- 
gressors (Isa. 53 : 12). 

XXIII. Who made His grave with the rich 
(Isa. 53 : 9). 

XXIY. Whose soul was not left in Hades; 
whose flesh saw not corruption (Psalm 16 : 10). 

XXY. Whose dominion is an everlasting- 
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed 
(Daniel 7 : 14). 

XXYI. To whose light the Gentiles come, 
and kings to the brightness of his rising (Isa. 60 : 3)- 



Jesus is the llessiah. 345 

XXYII. Even the Prince of Peace (Isa. 

9: 6). 

XXYIII. And the priest forever after the 
order of Melchizedec (Psalm 110 : 4). 

XXIX. The crucified Christ (Psalm 22). 

XXX. He shall not cry, etc. (Isa. 42 : 2f.). 

XXXI. I hid not my face from shame and 
spitting, etc. (50 : 5ff.). 

XXXII. See foot-note,^ 

Take Messianic prophecy either in detail, or as 
a whole, as you choose. In either case it stands 
as veridical prevision fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 

§ 7. Keturning to the view of messianic 
prophecy as a whole; that is, as a growing 

* (I) The reader is referred to the Oxford and Cambridge 
edition of the Kevised Version, "Helps to the Study of the 
Bible," p. 71, XXXI: "Prophecies Eelating to Christ," for 
reference to Old Testament passages predicting: (1) His 
advent ; (2) His forerunner ; (3) His nativity and early years ; 
(4) His mission and office; (5) His passion; (6) His resur- 
rection ; (7) His ascension ; (8) His second advent. 

(II) The wise men from the East (Matt. 2 : 1, 2), vrere un- 
doubtedly the Magi from Persia. The Persian priests or magi 
received their instructions from the priests of Babylon in 
Chaldea. The Babylonian priests were renowned for their 
prophecy and knowledge in astrology. From their long ob- 
servation of the planets and what was revealed unto them of the 
coming of Christ, they knew something extraordinary was about 
to occur ; hence they followed the star, i. e. , the materialized 
light, which astronomical ignorance mistook for a star ; and 
were led to the manger in Bethlehem. 

" And being ivarned by God tw a dream that they should not 
return to Herod, they departed into their own country another 
way " (Matt. 11 : 12). 



346 Jesus is the Messiah. 

expectation on Israel's part of a coming Messiah 
or Messianic Era, we see plainly prophecy and 
fulfilment ; for whatever may be said about de- 
tached prophecies, it is indisputable that from the 
earliest period of Hebrew history down to the 
appearance of Malachi the Hebrew consciousness 
had been developing the Ideal, — the dream if you 
choose, — of the coming Messiah who was to be at 
once an Ideal Man and an Ideal King, the glory 
of Israel and the desire of all nations ; and the 
ideal manhood and kingship of Jesus of Nazareth 
stand as a self-evident proof that this dream of 
ancient Israel must be classified under the head 
of dreams veridical. 

This being so, we have in Christ's life and 
works as fulfilments of long-standing prevision 
the most convincing "psychic verification" of 
gospel claims that can be adduced. 



CHAPTEE YII. 

A FEW WOEDS TO THE ORTHODOX CONOEENING 
THE FOEEGOING. 

In which possible objections from the orthodox wing are con- 
sidered and answered. 

§ 1, The authors are not aware that Christian 
scholarship has as yet made use of the new psy- 
chology in the field of evidence. Hence much 
that we have said in this work will be a new con- 
sideration for some orthodox Christian readers 
into whose hands it may chance to fall. 

Recognizing the fact that among the orthodox 
since Galileo's day considerations that are new 
are presumed to be untrue, we feel called upon to 
forestall, if possible, the objections which may 
arise from zealous " defenders of the faith." 

§ 2. We anticipate an objection from that 
school of believers who think that it is defide to 
regard the superphysical phenomena of Holy 
Writ as sheer miracles, i. e., as arbitrary sus- 
pensions of the ordered totality of God's creation. 

Such a view, we unhesitatingly say, is rank 
heresy, and does great injury to the faith. 

Every Bible student must be aware that those 
higher manifestations commonly called "mir- 
acles " are in the New Testamient called " signs " 

347 



348 A Few Words to the Orthodox. 

(semeia) " powers " or " mighty works " {dunameis) 
and " works " ; (erga) and that the term " miracles " 
in the sense of " wonders," " marvels," " prodi- 
gies " {terata) is never used except in conjunction 
with one or more of the first-named designations. 

For some reason the term " miracle " or " mar- 
vel" has been selected and isolated by the 
Christian religious consciousness as the character- 
istic of these higher manifestations. Our Lord 
is made to say, " No man which doeth a miracle 
in my name shall lightly speak evil of me." 
What He said was, " No man which shall do a 
jpower^'' etc. We read, " This beginning of 
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee." St. John 
wrote, " This beginning of his signs.''^ St. Paul 
is made to speak of the " working of miracles " 
as one of the Spirit's gifts. What he said was 
" the working of jpowersP And so we might 
multiply examples of mistranslations to show 
how the notion of these higher manifestations as 
marvels, anomalies, infractions of divinely es- 
tablished order, has come about. 

Only to those who are accustomed to regard 
the physical or material as the all of God's 
created system are these " signs," " powers " and 
" works " of the New Testament miracles, 
{terata) i. e., disturbances of the divinely created 
system. In insisting upon their anomalous char- 
acter the orthodox forget that God is the maker 
of all things invisible as well as visible. It is 
perhaps by reason of this insistence that so- 



A Few Words to the Orthodox. 349 

called Liberalism has arisen and rejected in toto 
the 5i^per-physical element in the Bible. If 
" things visible " form a system governed by law, 
— the physical world — is it possible to think of 
"things invisible" as aught else but a system 
governed by law ? If the spiritual forms a de- 
partment of God's creation ; a department which 
interpenetrates and compasses the physical round 
about (^ Kiiigs 6 : 17 ; Hehrews 12 : 1), is there 
not by reason of this fact a system of laws and 
conditions of a superphysical order liable at any 
time to be manifested upon the physical plane ? 
If you admit this, you have explained, so far as 
they can be explained, the " signs," " powers " 
and " works " recorded in the IsTew Testament. 
They are manifestations of the superphysical 
order in the physical. In that case the totality 
of order is in no wise disturbed. The lower is 
merely for the time superseded by the higher. 
They are occurrences on a large scale the same in 
principle as that which happens every day on a 
small scale ; i. e., whenever human volition, 
which is a spiritual factor, suspends temporarily 
the operation of a physical law, — say that of at- 
traction. For example, you drop a book but 
catch it in its downward flight. Here your 
spiritual volition has superseded a physical law. 

§ 3. The most serious religious objection, we 
take it, against subsuming our Lord's higher 
manifestations under law is that thereby these 
mighty works are rendered mechanical and auto- 



350 A Few Words to the Orthodox. 

matic, being divorced from the agency of His 
personal will. 

But we think this objection loses its force 
when we remember that all our own conscious 
intelligent acts in every-day life are done through 
the agency of will, even though subject to law. 
Hedged about though we are on the earth-plane 
by physical conditions, the luill, a spiritual 
factor, is the great power of man. 

Again, let us once more remind ourselves of 
the higher or " psychic " phenomena which are 
occurring in our own day ; those, namely, which 
scientific psychical research has brought to light. 
Some of the fixed conditions under which such 
phenomena happen have been discovered by care- 
ful observation. It is known that one of these 
conditions is a certain mental state in those 
persons (commonly called " psychics ") in whose 
presence such phenomena occur. Mind, there- 
fore, and not blind, automatic, material forces, 
seems here to be the primary factor. True it is 
that the servant of mind is apparently a subtle 
force ; viz., psychic force ; yet mind or spirit is 
the primary agent, as the intelligence manifested 
in the phenomena bears witness. 

The presence of laws, conditions, limitations, 
then, in the operation of higher phenomena in 
nowise excludes personal volition as the supreme 
determining factor. 

There can therefore be no valid religious ob- 
jection d priori against looking upon our Lord's 



A Few Words to the Orthodox. 351 

"mighty works" as manifestations of a super- 
physical body of law, — the " unseen universe," — 
if we keep in mind the fact that His personal 
will was always the supreme agency. 

§ 4. And now from defense we venture to 
attack our possible objectors in this field. Their 
conception of Christ as Sijiat miracle- worker in 
His divine capacity seriously impoverishes the 
doctrine of His Saviourhood. In this way : If 
in His therapeutic works He worked as God, 
these works can form no part of that great sacri- 
ficial offering which culminated upon the Altar 
of Calvary. If He wrought these works as 
" Very God " and not as " Yery Man " they cost 
Him nothing ; they were not sacrificial works. 
If however He wrought them as fnan • as a man 
who knew and utilized the psychic conditions 
which they called for, then were they sacrifices ; 
— outpourings of portions of that life which was 
comjpletely outpoured on Calvary's altar. 

If these works were His works as " Yery God," 
the unanswerable question is in order : " Why 
did He not then use this fiat-healing power as 
* Yery God ' in curing all the ills of humanity ? 
"Why did He confine these acts of mercy to that 
small fraction of humanity who personally re- 
quested them ? " 

If we assume that He wrought these works as 
the " Son of Man," this question presents no 
difiiculty ; for as the " Son of Man " His entire 
ministry was subject to the limitations of locality. 



852 A Few Words to the Orthodox. 

He could respond only to requests personally 
preferred to Him. He could minister only to 
those who came into contact with Him — whether 
tactual or telepathic. — We do not of course deny 
that as the Son of God He might have broken 
through these limitations at any time. "Was He 
not tempted to do this on that memorable oc- 
casion in the wilderness when the suggestion was 
presented that He possess Himself of all the 
kingdoms of the earth ? And did He not reject 
this suggestion as Satanic ? 

But as St. Paul states, He, " being in the form 
of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality 
with God, but emptied himself, taking the form 
of a servant, being made in the likeness of men " 
(Phil. 2 : 5-7). 

We stand with a goodly company of eminent 
theologians, whose orthodoxy is above reproach, 
when we interpret this statement of St. Paul as 
meaning a real Jcenosis or giving up of divine 
attributes on the part of Him who " was made 
flesh." We interpret it as meaning that the In- 
carnate One laid aside His divine power and 
knowledge (though they were never out of His 
reach) that He might come to us and live with 
us and for us as the Son of Man ; doing the will 
of Him that sent Him. We believe that He 
never lost sight of this His mission ; and that 
this rendered His mind always clear to spiritual 
and moral relations. He knew the power that 
was potentially His, along with that which actu- 



A Few Words to the Orthodox. 353 

ally pertained to Him (by His self-imposed limi- 
tations) as the Son of Man. Because He was the 
Son of Man, i. e., true to the highest standard of 
manhood, the Father committed all judgment unto 
Him (John 5 : 27). Therefore He had " power 
on earth " even " to forgive sins." Because He 
kept true to the highest standard of manhood, 
He "grew," as St. Luke states, in everything 
pertaining to an ideal man (Luke 2 : 52) ; and His 
growth must necessarily include development as 
a psychic agent. 

§ 5. Another objection which our treatise may 
arouse is this : " You have played into the hands 
of spiritualism ! " 

Have we not rather brought that which is 
true in spiritualism into the service of Christian 
truth ? 

What is " Spiritualism " ? We refuse to identify 
it with that sect or denomination known as " The 
Spiritual Association." We neither fight nor ad- 
vocate that or any other sect ; for in this work 
we are, or try to be, non-sectarian. We are not, 
nor shall we ever become sectarian spiritualists. 
With all due respect to our friends in that body, 
we must confess our failure to see any reason 
why a separate religion or denomination should 
have been founded upon the modern fact that 
communication does occur between discarnates 
and incarnates. (See Appendix B.) 

Spiritualism or spiritism is simply a name for 
the demonstrated psychic fact of spirit-communi- 



354 A Few Wo?-ds to the Orthodox. 

cation. As such it stands on a level with any 
other psychic phenomenon. All superphysical 
phenomena are immensely valuable as religious 
evideiices. Telepathy and telekinesis alone would 
refute materialism. But discarnate spirit-com- 
munication as a modern fact has this additional 
evidential value : It shows that age-long human 
tradition and E"ew Testament records of com- 
munication with the Spiritual World are not 
baseless superstitions but are grounded upon fact 
scientifically verifiable. 

Belief in spirit-communication as a modern 
fact no more commits the believer to the va- 
garies that have been perpetrated by certain 
mediums and their friends than belief in hyp- 
nosis at a distance commits one to the practice 
and sanction of witchcraft. 

That little syllable ism is too often substituted 
as an objection in lieu of reason. We are not 
alarmed at any possible cry of Spiritualism ; re- 
membering that, properly defined, it means be- 
lief in the standing possibility of spirit-com- 
munication. We use this established fact as an 
evidence. It is indifferent for our purpose what 
the nature of the communications may be. The 
fact that co'mmunications occur is the evidentially 
important thing; i.e., a twentieth-century wit- 
ness to Kew Testament record ; a corroboration, 
for example, of the scene recorded on the Mount 
of Transfiguration, or of St. Paul's mention of 
the gift of the " discerning of spirits " ; or of the 



A Few Words to the Orthodox. 355 

fact referred to by St. John when he wrote " try the 
spirits " ; or of that recorded in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, viz., the nearness of the spiritual world 
which compasses us round about (Hebrews 12 : 1). 

The psychic data which we in this work have 
placed in evidence supply, we believe, a long lost 
evidential link in demonstrating truths which are 
most precious to Christian believers : — life after 
death (see further in Appendix B), and the gen- 
uineness of the agency of Christ, the prophets 
who preceded Him, and the disciples who fol- 
lowed Him ; — the genuineness of their agency as 
ambassadors of the spiritual world in making 
known its reality to men in the flesh. 

In these phenomena, we repeat, there is noth- 
ing that is pe7' se a religion. They are " signs," 
and not the "things signified," — outward and 
visible signs of One inward and spiritual grace 
which has never been without its witness and 
manifestation among the sons of men in any 
nation or tribe. They have accompanied and 
borne witness to the power behind every fresh 
spiritual advance from the mission of Moses to 
the awakening inaugurated by the Wesley s. 
Only when the love of many in the church 
waxed cold ; only when it began to surrender 
to a colorless, materialistic Sadduceeism ; only 
when it looked askance at these phenomena as 
the work of " devils " ; — only then did these signs 
cease to follow ; for it was said of them, " These 
signs shall follow them that helievey 



356 A Few Words to the Orthodox. 

They had ceased in the Old Church when 
Pharisaism and Sadduceeism had supplanted 
Prophetism. They ceased in the ISTew Church 
when the same isms under new names had re- 
gained the ascendancy. 

Now they have returned to put once more the 
Sadducees to silence ; to demonstrate that God 
is not the God of the dead, but of the living, to 
vindicate those who have hoped against hope, 
that things seen are temporal, and things not seen 
are eternal; and that "what is seen hath not 
been made out of things which do appear." 



CHAPTEE YIIL 

EECAPITULATION. 
Points in the Gospel's PsycMc Verification Summed up. 

Now let us briefly review our findings. The 
field has been great ; the journey perhaps too 
rapid for one that carries us through a new and 
hitherto unexplored region of Christian evidences. 
Others, however, may perhaps be stimulated to 
explore more thoroughly and to travel with 
greater deliberation. 

Part I. The historical verification of the 
gospel, being itself in the nature of a review, 
needs no summarizing. 

Weighing the historical argument, however, 
we found ourselves confronted with the dictum 
of modern materialism, " miracles," i. e., super- 
physical phenomena, " do not happen." 

This dictum we found to be completely nulli- 
fied by the well-established psychic data which 
are placed in evidence in Part II. 

We have summarized in chapter vi of Part II 
the known conditions under which modern super- 
physical phenomena take place. Thus we lay a 
foundation for our main task, that, namely, with 
which Part III deals ; the enquiry. Do the evan- 

357 



358 



Recapitulation. 



gelists represent Jesus as performing like phe- 
nomena under like conditions ? 

We find that they do so represent Him ; and 
this with a minute circumstantiality in the re- 
ports both of His works of healing and His 
" mighty works " or dunameis. 

The following tables may serve to recapitulate 
the correspondence in character and conditions 
between modern psychic phenomena and " Gospel 
Miracles " as shown in Part III of this book. 



(A) Character. 

Modern Phenomena : 

1. Mesmeric heal- f To a 

ing. -! lesser ^ 

2. Absent healing. ( degree. 

3. Telekinetic phenomena. 

4. Psycho-chemical phenom- 
ena as in materialization. 



Gospel " Miracles " •• 

1. Healing through f To a 
physical contact, -j greater 

2. Absent healing. ( degree. 

3. Walking upon waves, etc. 

4. Water turned into "wine, 
etc. Moses and Elias ma- 
terialized. 



(B) Conditions Employed. 
I. In psychic healing. 

Modern Healing : 
1. Emanating psychic force. 1. 



2. Confidence of operator nee- 2. 



Gospel Healing : 
"I perceived that force 
had gone forth from me" 
(Luke 8: 46). 
" Because of your little 
faith"— ye faUed (Matt, 
17: 20). 

3. Emanating force commu- 3. "Lay hands on the sick 
nicated by contact. and they shall recover" 

(Mark 16: 18). 

4. Patient free from adverse 4. "According to yoiu- faith 
suggestions. be it unto you" (Matt. 

9:29). 

5. Avoidance of adverse sug- 5. "See thou tell no man" 
gestions after cure. (Mark 1: 44, etc.). 



' See, however, Postscriptum to chap, i of Part III. 



Becapitulation. 



559 



II. In other jpsycliic phenomena of a j>hysical 
order. 

Modern Cases: 
1. Presence of the psychic or 



Gospel Cases : 
Presence of Christ. 



agent. 

2. Emanating psychic force 
under control of will. 



Confidence on psychic's 
part. 

The "psychic" or "sub- 
jective" state; auto-hyp- 
nosis or trance 
Absence of adverse sug- 
gestions in surroundings. 



Darkness or subdued light 
for the highest physical 
phenomena. 



5. 



Clu"ist's works are de- 
scribed as powers or forces 
(dunameis) always willed 
by Him. 

"All things are possible 
to htm that believeth ' ' 
(Mark 9: 23). 

Mental calm — abnormal 
state unnecessary. 

"He could there do no 
mighty work . . . and 
He marveled at their un- 
belief "(Mark 6:5). 
Darkness or subdued light 
in all the physical phe- 
nomena of Christ outside 
of psychic healing. 



This correspondence constitutes a psychic verifi- 
cation of " Gospel Miracles " ; a demonstration of 
gospel veracity ; and a proof of Christ's insight 
into psychic laws and conditions ; added to which 
is the psychic verification supplied from Christ's 
life as the veridical fulfilment of ancient Hebrew 
prophecy. 

Thus it is shown that the miraculous or super- 
physcial element in the Bible came through the 
quickening of the Spirit manifesting itself in the 
incarnate and discarnate by producing psychic 
phenomena. 



APPENDIX A. 

CLASSIFIED TABLE OF SUPERNORMAL PHE- 
NOMENA. 

Class I. — Phenomena of Supernormal 
Communication. 

A. Telepathic. 

1. Mental telegraphy (Innumerable in- 
stances). 

2. Transference of gustatory, olfactory and 
tactile sensations and optical images when 
percipient is either normally or hypnotic- 
ally passive (S. P. R. Proceedings, Pod- 
more's " Apparitions and Thought-Trans- 
ference," etc.). 

3. Psychologizing by mental concentration 
on agent's part (Lectures by Edward B. 
Warman, of Chicago). 

4. Reception of veridical messages through 
automatic writing from living agent (Re- 
ports by W. T. Stead and other sources). 

5. Veridical dreams as telepathic messages 
(S. P. R. Proceedings). 

6. Yeridical clairaudient messages (S. P. R. 
Proceedings). 

360 



Appendix A. 361 

7. " Telepathie a Trois " (Thomson J". Hud- 
son). 

B. Alleged SpiTitistic. 

1. Communications through mediumistic con- 
trol containing reports of incidents in 
earthly life of communicator ; which inci- 
dents are objectively unknown either to 
mediums or sitters, but are afterwards 
verified by latter from information ob- 
tained from surviving acquaintances of de- 
ceased (Professor James Hyslop's report 
of Piper case in S. P. R. Proceedings, 
Part xli. 



Class II. — PnEisroMEisrA of Supernoemal 
Knowledge. 

A. Through Incarnate Mentality. 

1. Subliminal memory (Part II, Chap, iii, [1] )• 

2. Subliminal intuition (Part II, Chap, iii, [2] ). 

3. Independent clairvoyance. (a) Distant 
Sight in Dreams. Camille Flammarion's 
" The Unknown " ; through Crystal Vision 
(Dr. R. O. Mason's "Telepathy and the 
Subliminal Self " ). (b) Yeridical Prevision 
or Prophecy (W. T. Stead's Reports ; C. 
Flammarion's " The Unknown " and other 
sources). 

4. Psychometrical clairvoyance (Wm. Den- 
ton's " Souls of Things " ). 



362 Appendix A. 

B. Through Alleged Discarnate Sources. 

1. Mediums under control discoursing upon 
themes and topics foreign to their waking 
intelligence (A. R. Wallace's "Miracles 
and Modern Spiritualism " ; C. De Mor- 
gan's " From Matter to Spirit " ). 

2. Mediums under control conversing in lan- 
guages foreign to their waking intelli- 
gence [Ihid. Also Prof. Zollner reports a 
case in slate-writing). 



Class III. — Phetstomena of Supeenoemal 
Intelligent Powee. 

A. Through Incarnate Agency. 

1. A. P. Sinnett and other theosophists are 
authorities for the following : 

(i) Tiltings, levitations, raps, bell-chimes, 
wafting of air-currents, perfumes, etc. 

(ii) Transportation of Objects over great 
distances. 

(iii) Self -levitations. 

(iv) Passage of matter through matter- 
aj)2)ort. 

(v) Agent's body rendered invisible. 

(vi) Projection of astral body. 

2. Magnetizing of water (Paul Gibier's 
Psychism ; Louis JacoUiot's " Occult Sci- 
ence in India " ; and Dr. R. O. Mason's 
" Hypnotism," etc.). 



Appendix A. 363 

3. Cliemicalization in psycho-therapeutics ; 
Part II, chap. ii. 

4. Direct and Distant Healing, Part III, 
chap, i, P ostscri'ptuTih. 

5. Psycho-dynamic obsession or distant hyp- 
notic control (D'Assier's " Posthumous 
Humanity " and Jacolliot's " Occult science 
in India." 

6. Projection of the "Double" (0. Flam- 
marion's " Unknown "; A. D'Assier's " Post- 
humous Humanity," etc.). 

T. The " Double " of an incarnate person ma- 
terialized at spiritistic seances (five cases 
reported personally to the authors). 

8. Sorcery or " Black Magic," including Ly- 
canthropy and Yampirism (D'Assier's 
"Posthumous Humanity"; J. C. Street's 
" The Hidden "Way Across the Thresh- 
old," etc.). 

B. Through Alleged Discarnate Agency. 

1, Apparitions seen by percipients at moment 
of or shortly after agent's decease (" Phan- 
tasms of the Living " ; by Messrs. Gurney, 
Podmore and Myers). 

Note : — These cases are also ascribed by some 
authorities to ante-mortem telepathy. 

2. Magnetizations of water, etc., by discarnate 



Sir Wm. Crookes' 
report in Part XV 
S. P. K. Proceed- 
ings, 



364 Appendix A. 

spirits at seances (R. D. Owen's two works. 
See Bibliography of Parts II-IY). 

3. Tiltings, levitations, raps, chimes, air-cur- 
rents, transportations, etc., etc. (Reported 
by nearly every investigator of mediumistio 
phenomena). 

4. Ascensions of medium's 
body. 

6. Elongations and shorten- 
ings of medium's body. 

6. Production of immunity 
to fire in medium and 
sitters. 

7. Alterations of weight of bodies (Sir Wm. 
Crookes). 

8. Passage of matter through -msitter-apport 
(Sir Wm. Crookes and Prof. ZoUner. See 
also our experience, p. 123). 

9. Inorganic psycho-chemicalization (Sir Wm. 
Crookes and H. S. Olcott). 

10. Psychography or slate-writing (Numerous 
reports ; see also Part II, chap. iii). 

11. Precipitated paintings (Part II, Chap. iii). 

12. Direct healing by spirits (R. D. Owen's 
books. See Bibliography). 

13. Obsession. (See Appendix B.) 

14. Materializations manifesting following 
phenomena : talking or phonation ; walk- 
ing, eating, drinking, smoking, etc. (Re- 
ports of Sir Wm. Crookes, H. S. Olcott, 
Florence Marryatt, and others). 



Appendix A. 365 

15. Independent Phonation (Phonation pro- 
duced in presence of the authors). 

16. Objects rendered invisible (Prof. ZoUner's 
" Transcendental Psychics " ). 

Class IY. — Endemic Phantasms or Lo- 

CALITY-HAUNTIlSrG GhOSTS. 

See S. P. R. Proceedings under head of 
" Haunted Houses." 



APPENDIX B. 

CONCERNING SPIEIT-COMMUNICATION AND 
DEMONIC POSSESSION. 

I. — Spieit-Communication. 

§ 1. In this appendix it is our purpose to 
gather up fragments concerning spirit-communi- 
cation left ungarnered in chapters iii and iv of 
Part II, and chapters i and iv of Part III. 

We shall deal first with the subject of spirit- 
communication, i.e., with the a ^WoW possibility 
of communications between minds incarnate and 
discarnate together with the evidence bearing 
upon the question of fact. 

§ 2. We are not unmindful, however, of a 
logical difficulty which confronts us at the out- 
set. Our critics may enquire with perfect jus- 
tice what right we have to discuss spirit-com- 
munication before we have proved that there are 
such things as discarnate spirits ; before we have 
established the fact of a life after death. In 
other words, he who plunges in medias res into 
a discussion of spirit-communication tacitly begs 
a very momentous question ; that, namely, 
whether there are any spirits with whom com- 
munication may be had. 

366^ 



Appendix B. 367 

What then, before all subsequent considera- 
tions, are the evidences of a life after death ? 

Convincing to the heart but not to the reason 
are all those arguments from race-aspirations, 
beliefs, etc., which may be summed up as " inti- 
mations of immortality." Persuasive as they 
are, they will not do as evidence. 

We might, it is true, rest our case for a future 
life upon those facts concerning Christ, partic- 
ularly His resurrection, which we think we have 
established in the foregoing work. We believe, 
however, that life beyond death is capable of 
inductive proof from modern data; therefore, 
without retracting any arguments advanced in 
chapter ii of Part III, we shall in the present 
instance rely upon induction from contemporary 
facts. 

As we can add nothing essential to Dr. 
Hudson's presentation of inductive proof in his 
work, " A Scientific Demonstration of the Future 
Life," we shall offer it in summarized form : 

(1) Nature never produces faculties, functions, 
etc., that have no normal use in some sphere of 
life. 

(2) The intuitional, telepathic, clairvoyant, 
and telekinetic faculties of man's mind are, on 
the physical plane of life, ahnormal and prac- 
tically xiseless ; for their every exercise demands 
objective verification. 

(3) Therefore, unless we are ready to affirm 
that nature has made a mistake in the production 



368 Appendix B. 

of these faculties, we are logically forced to 
assume that beyond the physical plane there is a 
sphere in which the exercise of these faculties is 
normal : — that there is a future life for man. 

We repeat that we can add nothing essential to 
the argument. All that we can do is to recon- 
struct some of its terms in the light of our 
psychological conclusions in chapter iv of Part 
II. For example, for " faculties," " functions," 
etc., we would substitute man's j^^ycA^c organism f 
concerning whose existence and constitution we 
have adduced facts and inferences in the chapter 
just now named. 

"We might reconstruct the foregoing propo- 
sitions as follows : 

(1) E^ature never produces organisms or func- 
tions of organisms that have no normal use in 
some sphere of life. 

This proposition is recognized as fundamental 
in physical science. 

(2) The psychic organism of man in its strictly 
superphysical activities is an organism with func- 
tions which have no normal use in the physical 
sphere of life. 

(3) Therefore, it is 7iot a mere inference, but a 
strictly necessary conclusion that there is a sphere 
of life beyond the physical in which man's psychic 
organism will exercise its superphysical functions 
normally. 

Here we have in very truth " a scientific dem- 
onstration of the future life " ; — a demonstration 



Appendix B. 369 

whose denial involves that of a fundamental 
proposition of physical science. Only by aifirm- 
ing that nature sometiTnes may produce organisms 
or functions of organisms that have no normal 
use in any sphere of life ; and that the psychic 
organism of man with its superphysical activities 
is precisely a case in point ; — only by affirming an 
unsupported proposition like the above, can this 
demonstration of the future life be disputed. In 
plain terms, the demonstration rests upon a 
necessary induction from facts. Its possible 
denial is nothing else than wild conjecture. 

But even without the scientific demonstration 
we are still within the bounds of the reasonable 
when we say that the burden of proof rests upon 
those who deny that man's psychic organism, 
which is the efficient cause of his physiological struc- 
ture and which is itself in coj'poreal forin^ will 
cease to exist when the fleshly covering of its 
own making shall be dissolved. It were as logical 
to say that the tearing down of a house destroys 
its architect. 

§ 3. We may then pass on to this twofold 
enquiry : 

First, when man's psychic organism passes out 
of its fleshly covering into the superphj^sical 
sphere, is it reasonable to suppose that under 
certain conditions it may communicate with 
spirits still in the flesh ? 

^ See Part IV, chapter iv. 



370 Appendix B. 

Second, what is the testimony of well-estab- 
lished facts ? 

§ 4. As to the rational possibility of spirit- 
communication, we can perhaps do no better 
than to quote a passage from a certain author 
who has recently produced a book advocating a 
doctrine of reincarnation upon a professedly 
Christian basis, and strenuously opposing spirit- 
ualism. We refer to the Kev. Columbus Brad- 
ford, author of " Birth a l^ew Chance." — This 
author unquestioningly accepts Dr. Hudson's 
dual-mind psychology as set forth in his " Law of 
Psychic Phenomena " ; but thus reproaches his 
learned preceptor for that to which the latter has 
laid himself open in his " Scientific Demonstra- 
tion of the Future life " : — " The very bulwark of 
spiritualism consists in this inconsistent theory 
that when a human being dies, the intelligent 
person goes out of the body into an active and 
conscious realm. Accept this as an unquestioned 
fact, and you cannot advance a single good reason 
why our dead friends should not be both able and 
eager to communicate with us. The fact of telep- 
athy is coming more and more closely to 
light. . . . If it is true that the spirit leaves 
the human body at death, and carries with it the 
intelligent personality, with consciousness com- 
plete and the power to think and convey thoughts 
to other minds, then of course (italics Mr. Brad- 
ford's) such a spirit ought to be able to communi- 
cate by means of telepathy with the subjective 



Appendix B. 371 

mind (?) of a living person " (" Birth a New 
Chance," pp. 74, 75). 

That this author's point is exceedingly well- 
taken we think is obvious. The scientific dem- 
onstration of a future life does, as Mr. Bradford 
affirms, make spirit-communication a very rational 
possibility. We acknowledge our debt to Dr. 
Hudson for showing this point ; and we cannot 
overlook the fact that this "scientific demon- 
stration" likewise disposes of Mr. Bradford's 
somewhat dismal denial that "the intelligent 
person goes out of the body into an active and 
conscious realm." 

Upon this last matter we would say in passing 
that the hypothetical " entity " called " subjective 
mind " seems chiefly responsible for the peculiar 
theory of unconscious post-mortem existence prior 
to an alleged reincarnation which is advocated in 
Mr. Bradford's book. "We would add that Dr. 
Hudson's argument in his " Scientific Demon- 
stration " depends in no degree upon the truth of 
his dual-mind theory. Take away the " subjective 
mind" and the psychological foundation upon 
which Mr. Bradford builds his theory crumbles 
away ; while Dr. Hudson's argument still stands. 
Yet, as Mr. Bradford observes in the passage just 
now quoted, Dr. Hudson's conclusion does lead to 
spirit-communication as an inevitable possibility. 

The fact that telejpathy and hyjpnosis at a dis- 
tance have heen jpro'oed heyond douht to he a Tneans 
of communication between minds incarnate con- 



372 Appendix B. 

stitutes a standing ^possibility of communication 
between minds incarnate and minds discarnate. 

§ 5. Thirds what is the testimony of well- 
established facts as to spirit-communication ? 

We recognize of course that a scientific en- 
quirer will admit in evidence only those facts 
which are attested by modern witnesses in good 
scientific standing. Yet one source of human 
conviction not to be despised is that of cumula- 
tive testimony. 

It is conceivable that out of a hundred thou- 
sand people who testify to a certain order of oc- 
currences, every one, upon being cross-examined, 
might be found from a strictly scientific stand- 
point to be an unreliable person. In every single 
case the testimony might be found wanting as 
formally valid evidence. l!^evertheless there 
would remain over and above everything a 
cumulative force which carries conviction with 
it. 

In just this way communications from departed 
spirits are largely attested. In every race of 
mankind from the earliest dawn of history there 
stand thousands upon thousands of witnesses who 
testify to spirit-communications in various forms. 
Each case taken alone may be punctured by a 
scientific scrutiny ; but we cannot get rid of the 
cumxdative force of race-testimony. If there be 
life after death, if there be, as psychology shows, 
a standing possibility of communication between 
the people here and beyond, and if race-testimony 



Appendix B. 373 

affirms that such commiinicatioii has taken place 
— well, we ought at least to be able to examine 
modern reputable witnesses with candor. 

§ 6. Again before coming to modern wit- 
nesses of good repute, we must stand by what we 
have gained in the main argument of our book 
concerning gospel-veracity. We must not forget 
that spirit-communication is attested by three 
evangelists whose accounts of the particular case 
we have in mind show a recognition of con- 
ditions identical with those of to-day. (See 
treatment of Transfiguration phenomena, p. 270 
et seq.) Sts. Matthew, Mark and Luke leave no 
doubt of the fact that Jesus communicated with 
Moses and Elias in the presence of Peter, James 
and John. 

A manifestation of spirits who " appeared to 
many in the Holy City " (Matt. 2Y : 53) is re- 
corded as taking place on the first Easter morn- 
ing. 

The Hebrews- writer, after rehearsing the deeds 
of certain Old Testament fathers, states : " See- 
ing we are compassed about with so great a cloud 
of witnesses " (12 : 1). 

In other words, the spirit-world and its in- 
habitants compass us about and hold us in full 
survey. " Ye are come . . . unto innumer- 
able hosts of angels, and unto the spirits of just 
men made perfect " (12 : 22 f.). 

Angelic communication : " Are not they (the 
angels) all ministering spirits sent forth to do 



374 Appendix B. 

service for the sake of them that shall inherit 
salvation ? (Heb. 1 : 14.) (Compare instances of 
angelic manifestation recorded in Acts.) 

We must not forget that a certain kind of 
" spirit-communication " is recognized both by 
St. Paul and St. John as among the extraordinary 
" gifts " of the Holy Spirit (or charismata) in the 
Apostolic Church. 

Thus St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 : 10 enumer- 
ates among the spiritual gifts that of the " dis- 
cernings of spirits." On the face of the text this 
looks like the possession by some of a clairvoyant 
vision able to penetrate the veil that screens 
from fleshly sight the " cloud of witnesses " by 
which we " are compassed about." According 
to St. Paul it is a gift from God's Holy Spirit ; 
hence its recipients would be protected by the 
Divine Donor from the dangers and pitfalls to 
which one is exposed who, unprompted of God, 
forces intercourse with the spiritual world : — the 
danger, namely, of getting under the control of 
undesirable spirits. In passing we may observe 
that the gospel, unlike the law "which was 
given through angels " (Gal. 3 : 19), ^ came from 
God directly. Rajpjport with the Absolute was 
its source. The source of Christ's deliverances 
was His Father in heaven ; that of the apostles 

^The passage reads: "it (the law) was ordained through 
angels by the hand of a mediator. ' ' The mediator was Moses. 
An alternate reading might be : " ordained through angels by 
the hand of a medium. ' ' 



Appendix B. 315 

the Spirit who was given to guide them into all 
truth and call to their remembrance Christ's 
teachings. Though an angel from heaven might 
preach another gospel, he was to be rejected 
(Gal. 1 : 8). 

From St. John's statement in his First Epistle 
(4:1, 2), which was written towards the close of 
the first century, it is evident that a vicious 
phase of mediumship had developed. Spirits of 
a lower order had begun to communicate through 
certain persons who claimed the rank and au- 
thority of Christian prophets. 

Accordingly, St. John writes (4 : 1, 2) : 

" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove 
the spirits, whether they are of God; because 
many false prophets are gone out into the world. 
Hereby know ye the spirit of God : every spirit 
which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the 
flesh is of God: and every spirit which con- 
fesseth not Jesus is not of God." 

This apostolic warning ought to be instructive 
to many who in our own day have been carried 
away from the gospel of the Incarnate Christ by 
the testimony of spirits who either know not, or 
profess to know not, the Jesus whom the I^ew 
Testament sets forth, even Him who was pre- 
dicted by the " sure word " of Ancient Prophecy. 

The following IS'ew Testament passages are 
also significant in their bearing upon discarnate 
spirits and their communion with men : 

(1) Acts 23 : 8, " For the Sadducees say that 



3T6 Appendix B. 

there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit/ 
but the Pharisees confess both." 

The word confess is significant, as though St. 
Luke, the writer of the Acts, had said, " But the 
Pharisees acknowledge that which is a threefold 
fact : a resurrection, angels and spirits." 

(2) Christ, while denouncing the Pharisees 
for many things, confirmed their eschatology 
against their opponents, the Sadducees, when He 
affirmed of God : " He is not the God of the 
dead, but of the living, for all live unto him ; " 
—or, " all are living unto Him," as it might be 
translated (ZuJce 20 : 27). In other words, there 
are no dead people. In the New Testament the 
terms dead and death are either (i) terms of con- 
venience ; (ii) or referring to a state of sin ; (iii) or 
referring to destruction as a possibility. 

(3) Acts 23 : 9, " And some of the scribes of 
the Pharisees' part stood up and strove, saying. 
We find no evil in this man : (Paul), and what if 
a spirit hath spoken to him, or an angel ? " 

This shows plainly that spirit-communication 
was then an orthodox Jewish belief ; the Phari- 
sees representing the orthodox party. Now St. 
Paul was brought up a Pharisee, and in becom- 
ing a Christian changed none of his early escha- 
tological beliefs, but rather made use of Jesus' 
resurrection as a fact confirmati've of the Hebrew 
prophetical eschatology. He appeals to the 
Pharisees themselves, saying, " Brethren, I am a 
Pharisee, a son of Pharisees ! touching the hope 



Appendix B. 377 

and resurrection of the dead I am called in ques- 
tion " (29 : 6), (Here dead is a term of conve- 
nience or accommodation.) So much for the 
'^QW Testament record concerning spirit commu- 
nication as a possibility and a fact. 

§ 7. Kow let us pass to the testimony of 
modern psychic facts. We are not unmindful 
that many, perhaps the great majority of modern 
cases reported as '"'' spiritistic^'' are in reality of 
^^ subliminal''^ ^ origin, manifesting either direct 
or indirect telepathy between incarnate minds. 

In examining modern evidence we find very 
few cases of which we may validly say, " these 
represent indisputably genuine phases of spirit- 
communication." 

So far as technical proof is concerned, we con- 
fess that there are very few cases in which the 
discarnate nature of the communicator is demon- 
strated beyond reasonable doubt ; in which mun- 
dane telepathy is absolutely excluded. Still there 
are some y and for purposes of proof one case is 
as good as ten thousand. 

Among the indisputable spiritistic cases is the 
famous one of Mrs. Piper, to which we referred 
in chapter i. Part III, p. 23T. It is indisputably 
spiritistic for these reasons : 

(1) The high scientific auspices under which 
the Piper manifestations are conducted are guar- 
antees against fraud and error. 

^ We nse subliminal here as a convenient designation for those 
arrangements of psychic forces which lie below the strata of 
consciousness. See Part II, chapter iv. 



378 Appendix B. 

(2) Professor Hyslop of Columbia University, 
a member of the investigating committee, has al- 
ready reported numerous communications re- 
ceived through Mrs. Piper's mediumship from 
which telepathy between medium and sitters is 
excluded. 

These communications conveyed facts in the 
earthly life of the alleged communicator unknown 
either to sitter or medium. The sitter was Dr. 
Hodgson and the communicator was an alleged 
relative of Professor Hyslop who was not present 
at the sitting and futhermore was ignorant of 
the facts conveyed. By making enquiries from 
relatives of the deceased, who lived at some dis- 
tance, he ascertained that the facts reported had 
actually occurred during the deceased's earthly 
life. Where does telepathy come in ? Did the 
deceased's surviving relatives telepath the in- 
formation from their subliminal memories to 
Professor Hyslop's " subliminal mind " ? Did 
the latter surreptitiously pass it on to Dr. Hodg- 
son ? Did Dr. Hodgson then deliver it up to 
Mrs. Piper ; and did the latter then proceed to 
" raise it above the threshold " ? ^ 

' Since the writing of this paragraph there has appeared the 
sensational interview between Mrs. Piper, now honorably dis- 
charged from the S. P. R. 's employ, and a New York Herald 
re]3orter (issue of Oct. 20, 1901). The gist of the interview is 
Mrs. Piper's expressed ojnnion that in her trance-deliverances, 
the reports of which she has recently perused, there is no evi- 
dence of spirit-communication. Opinion is one thing, and fact 
another. The test facts as reported by Messrs. Hyslop and 



Appendix B. 379 

Did the telepathy come in this way ; or did it 
not rather come from the mind of the departed 
spirit to that of Mrs. Piper directly? Which 
supposition will stand the test of reason ? Surely 
not that of the endless-chain series ! Eather that 
of the direct character; and especially so be- 
cause, as we have seen, telepathy is a standing 
possihility of commu7iication between minds in- 
carnate and discarnate. 

We must acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. 
Bradford for inadvertently supplying us with an- 
other excellent test-case of spirit-communication ; 
one whose significance we confess having failed 
to grasp in our first perusal of Professor Flour- 
noy's book " From India to the Planet Mars." 
The case to which we refer is cited by Mr. Brad- 
ford as conclusively demonstrating a memory of 
a previous incarnation. It is this : 

Professor Flournoy's psychic " ward " Helene 
Smith, speaking under the alleged control of a 
discarnate spirit named " Leopold," affirms that 
in a former incarnation she was the wife of an 
Hindu rajah, one Sivrouka, who in the year 1401 
built a certain fortress at a certain place. 

Professor Flournoy after corresponding with 
the chief authorities in Hindu history for the 

Hodgson must speak for themselves. In only one respect ia 
Mrs. Piper's anti-spiritistic opinion valuable ; and that is in 
making previous assurance doubly sure that the proceedings 
have been honest and absolutely untainted by fraud. The in- 
terviev^ confirms the integrity of the distinguished lady-medium, 
and evinces a mind of high culture. 



380 Appendix B. 

possible verification of Sivrouka's existence, had 
come to the conclusion that "Leopold's" state- 
ment was unveridical. But one day as he was 
searching through a library he found an old dust- 
covered volume which, chancing to open, he 
found to contain a statement that the rajah 
Sivrouka actually founded this fortress in the 
year 1401. The professor says he is prepared to 
vouch for the fact that Helene was entirely ig- 
norant of Hindu annals and had never obtained 
access to this obscure volume. 

Now what is the explanation ? 

Professor Flour noy, who rejects spiritism, con- 
cedes that " subliminal memory " is here out of 
the question. 

Independent clairvoyance of such astounding 
power would involve a tremendous tax on our 
faith. 

" Telepathie a trois " would, in this case, be 
more like telepathy ad injmiitum. 

Was it a manifestation of a memory of a former 
incarnation, as Mr. Bradford alleges ? 

On its face it was not Helene's memory, but in- 
formation imparted to Helene by her spirit-con- 
trol, Leopold. 

Now reincarnation may be regarded as an ab- 
stract possibility ; but only as such. It is a 
proposition to be accepted if proved ty facts. 

But spirit-communication rests, as the Piper 
case shows, upon a solid foundation of proof. 
This being so, reasoning from the known to the 



Appendix B. 381 

unknown, we are logically compelled to take this 
Leopold case at its face-value ; to conclude that 
Leopold was verily and indeed a discarnate spirit 
controlling Helene Smith and imparting to her 
this veridical information concerning Sivrouka. 

While we must needs accept " Leopold's " 
statement concerning Sivrouka, substantiated as 
it is by historical records ; we hold ourselves 
free to reject his statement concerning reincar- 
nation, because we are warned to " believe not 
every spirit," but to " try the spirits." Trying 
this particular spirit, we find that he manifests 
only a mediocre calibre; that he may perhaps 
be relied upon for commonplace facts ; but by 
no means as a guide in vital doctrines. The 
testimony of all returned spirits so far as it bears 
upon life after death, is all for progress through 
the spirit-spheres, and none for progress through 
the reincarnation method. 

Perhaps the most conclusive case of modern 
times in the demonstration of spirit-communica- 
tion is that cited by the Hon. Robert Dale Owen 
in his book " The Debatable Land " (pp. 411-433). 

Assuming that it has been forgotten by the 
general public, for it happened in the year 1865, 
we here place it in evidence : 

"Monsieur N". G. Bach, grandson )f the cele- 
brated Sebastian Bach, and a respectable citizen 
of Paris is the principal. He was then (1865) 
well on in years, but still active as a musical 
composer. His son, Leon Bach, was a gentleman 



382 Appendix B. 

of antiquarian tastes. In a bric-a-brac shop in 
Paris he purchased an ancient spinet, a species 
of piano, inscribed with the name Antonius 
I^obilis, Eome, 1564. He presented it to his 
father, who was much delighted with the gift. 

" That night (May 4, 1865) the old gentleman 
had a most vivid and remarkable dream. There 
appeared to him in vision a handsome young 
stranger, wearing a carefully trimmed beard, 
and elegantly dressed in the ancient costume of 
the French Court. . . . Doifing a high- 
pointed, broad-brimmed, and white-plumed hat, 
this young man advanced, bowing and smiling, 
towards M. Bach's bed, and thus addressed the 
wondering sleeper : 

" ' The spinet you have belonged to me. I 
often played on it to amuse my master, King 
Henry. In his youth he composed an air with 
words which he was fond of singing while I ac- 
companied him. Both words and air were writ- 
ten in 7nem.ory of a lady whom he greatly loved. 
He was separated from her, which caused him 
much grief. She died, and in his sad moments 
he used to hum this air.' 

" After a time this strange visitor added : ' I 
will play it to you, and I shall talce means to re- 
call it to your recollection.'' ^ 

" Thereupon he played the air upon the spinet. 

" When M. Bach awoke in the morning, he saw 
lying ujpon his hed a sheet of j^a^er headed i7i old 
^ This tautology is uot ours. 



Appendix B. 383 

French chirography the words, ' Air et paroles 
du Roy Henry III. ' 

"It was a rare archeological specimen; the 
notes minute ; the clefs there used in former 
times ; the writing careful and old-fashioned, 
with here and there the Gothic tails to be found 
attached to certain letters in the manuscripts of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the 
orthography, too, that of two or three hundred 
years ago. 

" On playing the air at the spinet, M. Bach 
recog-nized both the music and words of the 
dream. He found moreover that the manu- 
script was part of a four-page sheet of music 
paper on the first two pages of which he had 
jotted down a composition the day before, leav- 
ing the sheet in his escritoire. How had it been 
removed thence ? for M. Bach had never been 
either a sleep-walker or a sleep-talker. 

" M. Bach related these incidents to his friends, 
and soon the matter became widely known. 
Among his visitors were some spiritists who 
suggested that the case was one of spirit-mani- 
festation. This was a new thought to M. Bach 
who had heretofore had nothing to do with 
spiritism. 

" One day, three or four weeks after his dream, 
feeling a headache and nervous trembling of the 
arm, the idea struck him that perhaps some spirit 
wished to write through him and thus to furnish 
an explanation of the mystery. . , . 



384 Appendix B. 

" The result was that he received a communi- 
cation through automatic writing signed by the 
name of Baldazzarini informing him that King 
Henry, his (B's) master, had given him that 
spinet and with it a verse written upon a parch- 
ment ; (quoting the verse). The parchment he, 
Baldazzarini, when about to travel, had placed 
within the sjpinet, in a small niche, on the left of 
the key-board, ' where,' wrote he, 'it still is.' 

" M. Bach and his son opened the spinet and 
after diligent search found the parchment in the 
jplace indicated^ and xvpon it was the verse quoted 
in the automatic message with only a few words 
different^'' 

(Mr. Owen quotes both the automatic version 
and the original on page 419 of his book. On 
page 420 is a facsimile print of the parchment.) 

Among the slight differences between the 
automatic version and the original was the Avord 
ma interpolated and bracketed in the latter. 
This puzzled M. Bach. But soon he received 
through automatic writing the following message 
from Baldazzarini : 

" Amico mio : The King joked about my 
Italian accent in the verse he sent with the 
spinet. I always said ma instead of mais " {=hut). 
Now for the verification of these communi- 
cations in the light of historical record : 

(1) The parchment with Henry Ill's sig- 
nature " was submitted for verification to ex- 
perienced antiquarians, and by them, after 



Appendix B. 385 

critical comparison, pronounced to be a genuine 
autograph of Henry whencesoever obtained." 

(2) The communication regarding King 
Henry's "grande passion" is true to fact, for 
he was enamored of the Princess Marie de 
Cleves who died in an abbey. 

(3) In the chronicles of the historian, Abbe 
Lenglet-Du-Fresnoy, was found the following 
passage : 

" In 15T9, Baltazarini, a celebrated Italian 
musician, came into France, to the Court of 
Henry III." 

(4) Mr. Owen subsequently found in a French 
Dictionary of Musicians in the Athenseum Library 
of Boston the following notice : 

"Baltazarini, an Italian musician, known in 
France under the name of Beaujoyeux, was the 
first violinist of his day. The Marechal de 
Brissac brought him from Piedmont, in 15Y7, to 
the Court of Queen Catherine de Medicis, who 
appointed him her Director of Music, and first 
valet de chamhre. Henry III entrusted to him 
the management of the Court fetes," etc. 

Upon this Mr. Owen comments as follows : 
(p. 430). 

" Baltazarini was, then, at Henry's Court, sur- 
named Beaujoyeux — 'the handsome and the 
joyous.' Compare with this the second line of the 
stanza, as it appears on the discovered parchment : 

* A Baltazarini, mon gay musicien — ' 
Gai being the synonym oijoyeux. 



386 Appendix B. 

" But in the stanza (the automatic version) as 
M. Bach's hand predicted it would be found, the 
same line reads : 

'A Baldazzaxini, trea Ion musicien.' 

" A trifling coincidence this. Yet a most sig- 
nificant one, because inconsistent with any 
arranged scheme of deception. There can be no 
stronger proof of authenticity than just such 
incidental trifles as these." 

" What shall we say," adds Mr. Owen, " of M. 
Bach's story ? The documents from which I 
compiled it were procured for me by an English 
friend in Paris. . . . That friend, having 
made M. Bach's acquaintance, obtained per- 
sonally from him all the particulars, with cor- 
rections of the newspaper statements " — (the case 
was a seven day vv^onder in the Paris press) — 
"and answers to various queries of mine sug- 
gested by the documents as I first obtained them ; 
also, through M. Bach's courtesy, the various 
photographs I possess," etc., etc. 

The case surely will speak for itself. We may 
safely challenge the most astute psychologist to 
devise any theory aside from the spiritistic 
which will satisfactorily explain the facts con- 
tained in it. 

There are several other test-proof spiritistic 
cases which we might cite did space permit. We 
think, however, that the cases already placed in 



Appendix B. 387 

evidence are sufficient to convince any reason- 
able mind that spirit-communication is a fact of 
modern occurrence. 

To this conviction many eminent thinkers have 
come : A. K. Wallace, Prof. C. De Morgan, Sir 
Wm. Crookes, Camille Flammarion, Professor 
Zollner, Professor Hyslop, Dr. Hodgson, F. W. 
H. Myers, W. T. Stead, and the latest convert, if 
recent Associated Press dispatches may be trusted, 
is Dr. G. Lloyd Tuckey, who, according to Mr. 
Edward T. Bennett, Secretary of the London 
S. P. R. "has made important tests of trance 
mediumship, and has been convinced of the 
possibility of speaking with disembodied intelli- 
gences." 

We have purposely not placed in evidence the 
materializing phenomena reported by Sir Wm. 
Crookes and those witnessed by ourselves, inas- 
much as they are weak in those points whereby 
personal identity is established. In no case does 
the evidence seem to us conclusive that the 
materialized form is the real departed person 
that it purports to be. Mechanical fraud in the 
cases to which we refer is in our belief out of the 
question; nor can we work ourselves up to a 
sufficient degree of credulity to think, as Dr. 
Hudson contends, that a human medium could 
by any " subliminal " -^ov^^qy produce such palpable 
living beings, especially two or tJwee simulta- 
neously. They are, Ave are persuaded, beings from 
the other side temporarily clotlied with material 



388 Appendix B. 

appurtenances ; yet beings of a decidedly inferior 
order and moreover somewhat clumsy person- 
ators, as note the case of the pseudo "Anna 
C " described on p. 130. 

But the cases of telepathic communication 
through mediumship, which we have just cited, 
are, we think, sufficient to establish spirit-com- 
munication as a present fact in the most technical 
and formal manner that could be desired. Their 
evidential significance moreover is far-reaching, — 
retroactive, we might say ; for they go far towards 
confirming as valid evidence the age-long testi- 
mony of all races of men to discarnate spirit-re- 
turn; of which testimony that of the Bible 
writers forms but a link in a long chain. They 
effectually dispose of all reincarnation theories ; 
they affirmatively answer the question, "If a 
man die, shall he live again ? " and they give us 
the assurance, not of faith and hope, but of ;posi- 
tive knowledge that those whom we " loved long 
since " and have lost, are but " lost awhile " ; that 
the sphere into which they have passed on and 
up is not " an undiscovered country from whose 
bourne no traveler returneth " ; that to some of 
the sons and daughters of our fleshly humanity is 
still vouchsafed the "discerning of spirits" by 
that " one and the selfsame Spirit who divideth 
to each man severally as He will." 

§ 8. "We must now turn aside for a moment 
from strictly evidential to religious and personal 
considerations. 



Appendix B. 389 

Our review of evidences has led us to spiri- 
tualistic conclusions. Are we then spiritualists ? 
Yes and no. If spiritualism be defined as the 
standing possibility, in all ages, of manifestations 
from the spiritual world, then we are spiritual- 
ists ; as we think evei^y one must be who accepts 
the ISTew Testament as the record of an authori- 
tative revelation. 

If however spiritualism be defined as a separate 
religion under an ofl&cial organization with tenets 
based upon communications from the other side 
denying all the essential teachings of Christ's 
gospel, then we must place ourselves on record 
as repudiating spiritualism. We do not hesitate 
to say that if such denials have really been com- 
municated by discarnate spirits, the latter in our 
belief are branded ipso facto as " not of God " 
(1 John 4 : 1, (gz5 seq^^. 

To say that our belief in the standing possi- 
bility of manifestations from the spiritual world 
commits us to the spiritualism of the anti-Chris- 
tian type were as just as would be the affirmation 
that we must be Christian Scientists because we 
believe in suggestive therapeutics ! 

For a clear and temperate statement of the 
place in Christian belief of the sort of spiritual- 
ism to which evidences have brought us we would 
commend the work of the Rev. Arthur Chambers, 
a Church-of -England clergyman in good stand- 
ing, — " Man and the Spiritual World," 



390 Appendix B. 

11. — Demonic Possession. 

§ 9. '' That evil spirits are permitted in some 
ages of gross wickedness to possess men has been 
the doctrine of the church in all ages, until the 
cavils of some modern thinkers, more skeptical 
than wise, brought it into question." ^ 

That skepticism has laughed demonic obsession 
out of court is a fact too well known. It has also 
laughed at God, the Spiritual World, and super- 
physical phenomena. Its cavils respecting these 
have been silenced. Is its mirth over demons 
well-grounded ? 

§ 10. Before examining evidences of demonic 
possession, let us satisfy ourselves that the New 
Testament does really assert that men were pos- 
sessed of evil spirits, i. e., personal intelligences, 
and not mere figurative personifications of dis- 
eases, evil thoughts, etc. ; for not only do ')nate- 
rialists pooh-pooh at personal demons, but many 
who accept the New Testament as a record of 
divine revelation do the same ; among others the 
Christian Scientists who have resolved aU spirits, 
good and evil alike, into principles. 

"We shall let the Eev, W. McDonald, author of 
"Spiritualism," etc., speak for us: 

" If you call these demons a personified prin- 
ciple of evil, you encounter the facts of a legion 
of these evil principles entering into one man, 

* Whedon's notes, Matt. 4 : 24 quoted in Rev, W. McDonald's 
"Spiritualism," etc., p. 65. 



AjDpendix B. 391 

and that these personified principles of evil were 
transferred from men to hogs. 

"If you call them diseases . . . you en. 
counter the difficulty that when these diseases 
were about to be cast out, they express an earnest 
desire not to be sent out of the country, preferring 
to go into the swine, which request is granted. 
That must have been a complicated disease of 
which a legion are cast out of one man, and seven 
go out of one woman. 

" If you say that by devils is meant insanity, 
you will encounter the difficulty of a legion of 
insanities entering into one man, and then trans- 
ferred from the man to swine, at their own 
request. 

"The ITew Testament writers clearly distin- 
guish between diseases of all kinds, and devils, or, 
as they are sometimes termed, ' unclean spirits.' 
Two texts must suffice : Matt. 4 : 29, ' And they 
brought unto him all sick people that were 
taken with divers diseases and torments, and 
those which were possessed with devils, and 
those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
palsy, and he healed them.' From this scripture 
we learn that being possessed of devils was not 
being sick with divers diseases and torments, nor 
was it being a lunatic, a madman. What could 
it have been to answer the description of the 
writer ? 

" Mark 1 : 34, ' And he healed many that were 
sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils ; 



392 Appendix B. 

and suffered not the devils to speak, because 
they knew him.' 

" The additional facts in this case are the 
knowledge displayed by the demons, and the dis- 
position which they manifested to speak. . . . 
If these possessions were diseases, then diseases 
have intelligence, volition, and the power of 
speech. 

" All this was done in the presence of a people 
who firmly believed in the reality of demoniacal 
possessions. Now, if Christ did not cast out real 
devils, He deceived the people by practicing a 
solemn farce before them " (pp. 61-64). 

That the Jewish people of that day did believe 
in real demonic possession Dr. McDonald pro- 
ceeds to show by a citation from Josephus ; 
" "Who," as the author justly observes, " may be 
regarded as a safe expositor of Jewish opinion 
on this subject " (p. 65). 

Josephus' words are, " Demons are the spirits 
of wicked Trien^ who enter into living men, and 
destroy them, unless they are so happy as to 
meet with speedy relief." 

§ 11. We shall find corroborating modern evi- 
dences of demonic possession if we can point to 
any case or cases of malicious or evil manifesta- 
tions by discarnate intelligences. 

"We will not press the chief point made by 
Dr. McDonald in the book just quoted from that 
all the anti-Christian and anti-ethical deliver- 
ances given through modern mediumship are of 



Appendix B. 393 

demonic origin in that they come from a low 
order of discarnate intelligences, for we cannot 
prove that they are not the vaporings of the 
medium's subconscious mentality, and hence of 
incarnate origin. All that we would safely ven- 
ture to say under this head would be this : If 
there can be found any specific cases of spirit- 
communication proved to be such under test- 
conditions, — the test being the absolute exclu- 
sion of incarnate telepathy ; — and if these attested 
spirit-communications be anti-Christian or anti- 
moral in character, then we would have evidence 
of demonic manifestations ; demons being de- 
fined agreeably with Josephus as " the spirits of 
wicked men." Possibly an exhaustive investiga- 
tion of the voluminous spiritistic literature scat- 
tered abroad throughout England, continental 
Europe and America would bring such cases to 
light. We would commend this field of research 
to those having leisure and inclination for it. 
There are however other data which strongly 
indicate that demonic possession is a modern 
phenomenon. Those who will take the trouble 
to read the reports written by the most reliable 
and scientific investigators of mediumistic phe- 
nomena will find records of many cases of mali- 
cious spirit-control. 

None, we venture to think, will question the 
scientific standing of the late Paul Gibier, M. D., 
sometime head of the ITew York Pasteur Institute. 
In his work " Psychism," he writes (p. 191), " In a 



394 Appendix B. 

general way, we scarcely deem it safe to give one's 
self up assiduously to the practice of 'evocations ' : 
one may not always receive whom one wishes, 
and when the ' medium,' having become passive, 
allows his animic energy {i. e., psychic force) — 
to escape, any evil intelligence, becoming at- 
tracted by certain magnetic influences of an in- 
ferior order, any larva, as the occultists term it, 
may take possession of it and cause irreparable 
damage. 

" It is chiefly during seances taking place in 
the dark that such events occur." 

Dr. Gibier then cites several cases in point. 

First is that of three English gentlemen who 
were earnestly desirous of testing the allegations 
of spiritism. They assembled in a room abso- 
lutely bare save three chairs and a table. Here 
they sat down silently and in darkness. 

" Suddenly," writes Dr. Gibier in his report, 
" a strident cry of distress burst upon the silence 
of the night. Immediately after a fearful noise 
was heard and a hail of projectiles fell upon the 
floor, table and observers. 

" Filled " with terror, one of those present 
lighted a taper, as had been agreed upon, and 
as soon as the darkness had given place to light, 
two of them only stood in the presence of each 
other, and saw their companion was missing and 
his chair upset at the end of the room. 

" As soon as they had recovered from their 
astonishment, they found their missing friend 



Appendix B. 395 

under the table, inanimate, with his face and 
head covered with blood. 

" What had taken place ? 

"It was seen that the marble mantelpiece, 
broken in pieces, had been torn from the wall, 
and cast at the unfortunate man's head." 

Another case which Dr. Gibier relates is that 
of a somewhat similar experience which befell a 

Mr. P , a distinguished member of the Parisian 

press. 

In this case various musical instruments floated 
about the room, one of them violently striking 

Mr. P. in the forehead and inflicting a wound 

whose scar he carried for the remainder of his life. 

Dr. Gibier also relates several thrilling ex- 
periences of his own in connection with medium- 
istic obsession by evil influence, in one of which 
both the author and his companions had a most 
narrow escape from death. The reader is re- 
ferred to pages 195-206 of Gibier's " Psychism." 

These cases we cite as specimens of many 
similar ones attested by equally eminent au- 
thority. 

They go to show that the " influences " opera- 
ting are extraneous to the psychic force of the 
members of the circle ; for the subliminal depart- 
ment of the soul is controlled by the instinct of 
self-preservation. If left to itself, it would auto- 
matically avoid any display or direction of 
psychic force calculated to kill, maim, or injure 
the subject. 



396 Appendix B. 

The only intelligent explanation of the phe- 
nomena described in these and similar cases is 
that the forces were under the control of ex- 
traneous minds of a malicious and evil character. 

The reader cannot fail to observe a striking 
similarity between these manifestations and 
those of a violent nature delineated in the gos- 
pels under the head of Demonic Possession. 

§ 12. All the most reliable data which we 
have examined under the general head of spirit- 
communication constrain us to the following con- 
clusions : 

(1) Spirit-communication has occurred in 
modern times. 

(2) Some of the communicating spirits, — 
to judge from their manifestations, — are of an in- 
ferior and evil nature. 

(3) Spirit-communication varies in degree 
from simple telepathic suggestion to complete 
control of the person communicated with ; in 
which case it amounts to obsession. 

We may add that those cases of mental alien- 
ation exhibiting vicious mediumship, wherein the 
phenomena are veridical and not hallucinatory, 
are amenable to hypnotic treatment. In the 
case of the insane, however, that is, where the 
phenomena are purely pathological and subjec- 
tive, hypnosis is generally conceded to be ineflS.- 
cacious. 



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